Reykjavik Preview: Games Tickets in Short Supply at 9th Sanctional

Now that the Open is concluded the pathway to the CrossFit Games is narrowing and the urgency for prospective qualifiers has ramped up. Only seven Sanctionals remain on the season calendar, but they take place on just four different weekends (there are two multiple competitions weekends in the next nine weeks). Realistically athletes have one or two opportunities left to grab a Games invite.

Six female and five male athletes have already qualified, making the Reykjavik CrossFit Championship a great opportunity for contenders to snag an invite.

• Six women who have current Games tickets — Jacqueline Dahlstrom, Haley Adams, Emilia Leppanen, Carole Castellani, Anna Fragkou, and Thuri Helgadottir. Dahlstrom and Adams earned spots via the Open (22nd and 32nd respectively). Open national champions are Leppanen (Finland), Castellani (France), and Fragkou (Greece). Helgadottir is in the qualifying position from Strength in Depth.
• Four men for sure have Games spots — Streat Hoerner, Björgvin Karl Gudmundsson, Lefteris Theofanidis, and Roman Khrennikov. Hoerner earned his spot via the Open in 14th.  Guðmundsson is the Iceland Open national champion and Theofanidis is the Greece national champion.  Khrennikov is in the qualifying position from the Dubai CrossFit Championship.
• Potentially Lukas Esslinger and Tim Paulson may also have done enough to qualify. However, their games tickets are tied up in potential Open declines, video verifications, and backfill scenarios. Esslinger may potentially qualify through the Italian Showdown (here’s why) and Paulson through the Open in 31st.
• Note: National Championships are pending video verification and will be confirmed today.

Individuals Roster Experience

• The men’s field is quite experienced with eight former Games individuals and four former Games team members.
• Conversely, the women’s field is fairly inexperienced at the Games: just one former Games individual (Helgadottir), two former Team members, and one Teenager (Adams).
• This is also the second or third attempt to qualify for 11 athletes. Among athletes who don’t yet have a qualifying spot, 10 men and 1 woman have competed in a previous Sanctional already.

There are 24 women and 29 men competing this weekend. Here’s who we’d be keeping a close eye on.

• Women: Emelye Dwyer, Lea Schmidt, Solveig Sigurdardottir, Jennifer Kokk, and Tori Dyson.
• Men: Tim Paulson*, Paul Tremblay, Lukas Esslinger*, Ben Stoneberg, Will Moorad, John Coltey, Alec Smith, Hinrik Ingi Oskarsson, Connor Duddy, and Joshua Gervais (*May already have qualified).
• Full roster.

Stacked team competition will be fierce gunning for the Games spot.

• Half of the teams have competed at the Games before (albeit with different rosters). Six of the Teams have already competed with mostly, if not the exact rosters at previous Sanctionals.
• The home country is fielding six Icelandic Teams. There are also four teams from the United States, four from the rest of Europe, and a team out of the UAE.

Teams to look out for.

• Invictus Boston: Coming in with a new line up from their Wodapalooza Team, Craig Kenney and Tola Morakinyo will now be joined by the Mid-Atlantic CrossFit Championship winner Meg Reardon and multi-Games team member Kelsey Kiel. The Invictus organization is looking to qualify their third team for the Games along with Invictus Grown Strong and Invictus X.
• Team JST Compete: JST is massively upgrading their team from earlier with the additions of Samantha Briggs (already qualified for the Games as an individual) along with former Games individual and team member Steven Fawcett.  They are joined by Fawcett’s fellow 2017 Games Team members Jak Cornthwaite and Jayne Eadie.
• Mayhem Independence: Led by Elly Kabboord, the 4th place Team from the 2018 Games will be looking to join Mayhem Freedom at the Games for second year in a row. Kristin Miller is rejoining the team she was on last year after having been on the Freedom team at Wodapalooza.
• Previously competitive teams to pay attention to are: Superhero Project (2nd at Fittest in Cape Town), CFXY (4th at Fittest in Cape Town), and 12 Labours Big Dawgs (4th at the Mid Atlantic CrossFit Challenge).

How to watch and our coverage.

• Justin LoFranco and Tommy Marquez are currently en route to Iceland to help with our end-to-end coverage in Iceland. You’ll want to bookmark this page to follow all the action throughout the weekend.
• The RCC will be livestreaming on ReykjavikCrossFitChampionship.is.