For the 2023 CrossFit season, two-time Fittest Woman on Earth® Katrin Davíðsdóttir joined five-time Fittest Man on Earth® Mat Fraser‘s HWPO programming with the intent to qualify for the 2023 CrossFit Games after failing to qualify in 2022. It was the first time she was absent from competing in the Games since 2014.
In a half-hour video podcast published on Fraser’s YouTube channel on May 2, 2023, the two CrossFit champions discuss the sport’s past, present, and future, as well as their personal trajectories within it. Check it out below:
[Related: 2023 CrossFit Adaptive Divisions — Who Is the Fittest on Earth® and Who Is Going to the Games?]
The Past: Katrin’s CrossFit Beginnings
The conversation opened on how Davíðsdóttir’s start in the sport was rockier than many might expect. In 2014, Davíðsdóttir missed the CrossFit Games after finishing in 30th and 24th place in 2012 and 2013, respectively.
Setbacks like that really make you turn inwards…and make decisions that you otherwise wouldn’t have.
Being stretched too thin in various directions, from pursuing a law degree to coaching full-time, Davíðsdóttir decided to go all-in for the 2015 season, and it resulted in her first CrossFit Games title, which she then successfully defended in 2016.
More Than Training
Fraser and Davíðsdóttir are two of the all-time greatest CrossFitters ever to compete, but they both avoid attaching their identities to the sport. Fraser stated, “I know I’m more than this one weekend a year,” referring to the CrossFit Games.
While focusing on training and competition is a significant part of their lives, Fraser and Davíðsdóttir consciously keep everything in perspective. There is much more to life than being the Fittest on Earth®, including relationships, health, family, and social work.
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The Present: CrossFit Entrepreneurs
Fraser started HWPO after retiring from competitive CrossFit in early 2021, and Davíðsdóttir is the latest member of the HWPO squad. Davíðsdóttir has been dealing had a “claustrophobic” fear of people getting closer to her, competition-wise. Within HWPO, she’s found renewed excitement via new training styles and simplification of the process.
Davíðsdóttir is working with Rob Kearney on her strength progressions as the number one focus. She hit a lifetime deadlift PR within the first month and a half of training with HWPO — a remarkable feat considering Fraser noted that they “were on a four-month track of strength training.”
Below is an example of an HWPO workout with Fraser, Davíðsdóttir, and a few other elite CrossFit athletes:
The Future: Life After the Games
Davíðsdóttir’s biggest goal in the sport now is “to leave it lighter than when [she] came in.” Above all else, she wants to infuse life with joy and hard work and transcend any made-up limitations. If she could instill anything in others, it’s to “spark of joy and a huge belief in themselves.” Fraser wants to “un-glamorize” the training process.
Sometimes, you need to…disappear for a little bit and work on your weaknesses. It’s not always going to be fun, and that’s okay.
When Davíðsdóttir eventually retires from competitive CrossFit, she wants to start a family and create a women’s skincare company with CrossFit alumn and fellow two-time Fittest Woman on Earth® Annie Thorisdottir.
Before all that, there’s still business to attend to at the CrossFit Games. Seeing how Fraser’s HWPO program has already progressed the Icelandic phenom’s PRs, a potential return to the Games podium is looming.
Featured image: @katrintanja on Instagram