Laura Horvath Wins the 2023 CrossFit Games
The 2023 CrossFit Games in Madison, WI, have ended. For the first time in seven years, a woman other than Tia-Clair Toomey sits on the throne as CrossFit Games champion. Laura Horvath is the Fittest Woman on Earth®.
The 2023 CrossFit Games were Horvath’s sixth career appearance on CrossFit’s biggest stage. She’d previously reached the podium three times, finishing second in 2018 and 2021, and third in 2022.
Horvath had a remarkably consistent performance throughout the 2023 Games. She scored four event wins and finished outside the top 15 a single time. She ranked in the top 10 in nine of 12 events, including the final event while wearing the leader’s jersey.
[Related: 2023 CrossFit Games Results and Leaderboard]
2023 CrossFit Games | Laura Horvath Performances
- Event 1 “Ride” — Ninth Place
- Event 2 “Pig Chipper” — First Place
- Event 3 “Inverted Medley” — 27th Place
- Event 4 “The Alpaca Redux” — Second Place
- Event 5 “Ski-Bag” — First Place
- Event 6 “Helena” — 15th Place
- Event 7 “Cross-Country 5K” — 13th Place
- Event 8 “Intervals” — Eighth Place
- Event 9 “Olympic Total” — First Place
- Event 10 “Muscle-Up Logs” — First Place
- Event 11 “Parallel-Bar Pull” — First Place
- Event 12 “Echo Thruster Final” — 4th Place
Laura Horvath | Event-by-Event Recap
Horvath opened her 2023 CrossFit Games campaign with a top-10 finish in Event One. She built upon that with a first-place finish in Event Two that featured heavy Pig flips that played to her advantage over the rest of the Games field: strength.
The strength-based, work-rate events are where Horvath shone through. Gymnastics seemed to be her only noticeable weakness on the competition floor, as represented by her 27th-place finish in Event Three, the Inverted Medley, her worst performance at the Games.
Fortunately for Horvath, the rest of the programming played to her strengths. She bounced back immediately with a runner-up finish in Event Four and her second event win of the Games in Event Five. After a mid-pack performance in Event Six, Horvath was towards the top of the overall leaderboard but needed big finishes over the weekend to take the title of Fittest on Earth®. That’s exactly what she did.
[Related: Athlete Withdrawals From the 2023 CrossFit Games]
Horvath kicked off Saturday with a 13th-place finish in the 5K to maintain her spot on the leaderboard. She proceeded to slide up the ranks with an eighth-place finish in “Intervals” to get her sights on the leader at the time, Emma Lawson. The night closed with Horvath scoring the heaviest Olympic Total — the sum of a 1-rep-max snatch and clean & jerk — of any woman in the field for her second event win of the Games.
Sunday at the CrossFit Games was Horvath’s day. She opened with back-to-back wins in Events 10 and 11 to assume the overall lead on the leaderboard by 22 points. She entered the final event wearing the leader’s jersey and needed only to stay within two ranks of Lawson.
Horvath scored when it counted in the clutch once again in the final event and bagged her first CrossFit Games title.
Featured Image: William Johnson / @barbellstories