2023 NOBULL CrossFit Games: Individual Male Athlete Spotlights

This is a living document. We will start with 5 men, then add 5, then another 5, until all 40 male individuals who have qualified* for the 2023 NOBULL CrossFit Games are here.

*Qualifications are always pending drug tests, and we acknowledge the possibility (although we hope not) that this list can change based on potential drug failures and subsequent backfills.

Sixteen 2023 CrossFit Games season Tests Thus Far

So far this season all 40 qualifying athletes have done 16 tests:

• 4 during the Open
• 5 during Quarterfinals
• 7 at Semifinals

What we’ve done is taken only these athletes’ scores on these 16 tests and compared them to each other. In each athlete’s spotlight where it says best performance(s) or worst performance(s) that means relative to this field of athletes. 

The top-ten athletes are so good at so many things that we will shift our focus to what they do not want to see at the CrossFit Games. What we mean by that is that, if by chance, a particular thing doesn’t show up this year, or shows up in a small capacity, that particular athlete would likely move up a place or two relative to where they might finish otherwise. 

Jeffrey Adler

Photo Credit: Athlete’s Eye Photography

Qualified: 1st in North America East

Games Appearance: 5th (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022)

Best 2023 Season Test: Quarterfinals Test 3 (1st)

Worst 2023 Season Test: Quarterfinals Test 4 (27th)

Average Test Finish: 8.8

What He Does Not Want to See at the Games: Adler really elevated his overall performance beginning with the 2022 Games and has continued that throughout this year. He’s the only man in the field who has averaged better than a 10th place finish against the field on all 16 tests they have taken so far. His only really notably bad finish came on Quarterfinal Test 4 (27th). At the 2022 Games, his bad finish came on “Elizabeth Elevated” (38th). Other “bad” finishes were on “Echo Press” (18th), “Sandbag” (16th), and “Alpaca” (16th). It’s difficult to find a specifically bad skill set for Adler, but the combination of poor finishes on Elizabeth and Echo Press might show a weakness in upper body pressing gymnastics. 

Dallin Pepper

Photo Credit: CrossFit LLC

Qualified: 3rd in North America East

Games Appearance: 2nd (2022)

Best 2023 Season Test: Open 23.2A, Semifinals Test 7 (1st)

Worst 2023 Season Test: Quarterfinals Test 1 (22nd)

Average Test Finish: 10.0

What He Does Not Want to See at the Games: Upper body pressing, both gymnastics and weightlifting. Pepper has been awesome this year averaging a 10th place finish against the field throughout 16 in-season tests. His worst finish? 22nd, which is also extremely impressive. He has had four finishes of 19th or worse, and three of those are weighted heavily by an upper body press (22nd Quarterfinal Test 1 and 20th in Semifinal Test 6 both with the strict wall facing free-standing handstand push ups, and 19th on Semifinal Linda with the dumbbell bench press).

Last year at the Games he was 39th on “Elevated Elizabeth”, 37th on “Echo Press”, 22nd on “Shoulder to Overhead B”, and 21st on “Up and Over”. Those are four of his six worst tests from 2022, and they all feature an upper body press. 

Patrick Vellner

Photo Credit: Athlete’s Eye Photography

Qualified: 1st in North America West

Games Appearance: 8th (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022)

Best 2023 Season Test: Quarterfinals Test 5 (1st)

Worst 2023 Season Test: Open 23.2B (32nd)

Average Test Finish: 10.5

What He Does Not Want to See at the Games: This is an obvious one. Vellner’s worst, or second worst, event every year at the Games has come on the swimming test (35th, 36th, 21st, 35th, 30th in 2016/20177/2018/2021/2022 respectively). If he got a year with no swimming you’d have to imagine it immediately catapults him into the most serious conversation we’ve ever had about his chances to win. 

Besides swimming, the last thing he wants to see is a heavy shoulder-to-overhead under fatigue. He was 35th last year on “Shuttle-to-Overhead B” (despite being 4th on part A), and he took 27th and 32nd on Open Test 23.2A and B this year. If Adrian Bozman continues to program back-to-back tests which get the athletes out of breath and then ask them to go heavy over head it would be a bad thing for Vellner.

The last thing that can slow Vellner down is possible biking or high volume of low skill gymnastics: 

• 20th, “Bike to Work” (both, including sets of 75 toes to bar and 75 chest to bar)
• 35th, “Crit” in 2018 (biking only)
• 11th out of 20, 2021 Games finale (90 chest to bar pull ups in one set)

Justin Medeiros

Photo Credit: Athlete’s Eye Photography

Qualified: 5th in North America West

Games Appearance: 4th (2020, 2021, 2022)

Best 2023 Season Test: Quarterfinals Test 2, Quarterfinals Test 4, Semifinals Test 6 (1st)

Worst 2023 Season Test: Semifinals Test 5 (33rd)

Average Test Finish: 12.3

What He Does Not Want to See at the Games: Medeiros is the second athlete on the list with three test wins against the field, a nice accolade considering how few events (1 total) he’s been able to win outright at the Games over the last two seasons despite winning the overall competition. 

As far as what he doesn’t want to see, he’s only had five finishes outside the top-10 over the last two years at the Games:

• 18th, “Shuttle to Overhead A” (running)
• 12th, “Elevated Elizabeth” 
• 15th, “Pig and Muscle Up” (2021)
• 11th, “550 meter sprint” (2021)
• 10th out of 20, Pegboard/DB OHS/DU (2021)

If trying to pick out some patterns, short fast running and combinations of gymnastics and weightlifting movements seem to be the biggest trouble areas.

So far during 2023, his worst finishes have come on

• Semifinal Test 5, 33rd (short distance running)
• Open 23.2B, 28th (1 RM Thruster- 272 LBs)
• Open 23.1, 24th (chipper featuring ring muscle ups and rowing)
• Semifinal Test 7, 22nd (bike/toes to bar/sandbag)
• Semifinal Test 4, 21st (1 RM Snatch- 285 LBs) 

Samuel Cournoyer

Photo Credit: Athlete’s Eye Photography

Qualified: 5th in North America East

Games Appearance: 4th (2019, 2020, 2021)

Best 2023 Season Test: Open 23.3, Quarterfinals Test 1 (1st)

Worst 2023 Season Test: Semifinals Test 6 (28th)

Average Test Finish: 13.0

What He Wants to See at the Games: Unlike most of the top-10 athletes on this list, there isn’t as much data for Cournoyer in recent competitions; so we’ll tell you what he wants to see as we did for the first 30 men. 

He has two event wins against this field already this season, they both came on workouts with strict free standing handstand pushups and barbell cycling. His best finishes at the Games in 2021 were on the muscle up/pig workouts (gymnastics and weightlifting in combination) and the technical handstand walk obstacle course. Those are all great places to start looking for elite performances for Cournoyer (would have loved to see his performance on “Elevated Elizabeth” last year for example). Especially because he also had the second best performance on Semifinal Linda which included squat cleans and dumbbell bench. That push / pull combination for both gymnastics and weightlifting seem to be Cournoyer’s dream scenario.

Brent Fikowski

Photo Credit: CrossFit LLC

Qualified: 2nd in North America West

Games Appearance: 8th (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022)

Best 2023 Season Test: Quarterfinals Test 2, Semifinals Test 4, Semifinals Test 5 (3rd)

Worst 2023 Season Test: Open 23.1 (40th)

Average Test Finish: 17.6

What He Does Not Want to See at the Games: No real surprise here, but tests with high volume gymnastics reps are generally his biggest challenge. Many of his worst events at the Games are of this nature: 

• 35th, Echo Press – 2022 (strict deficit handstand push ups)
• 33rd, Bike to Work – 2022 (75 toes to bar/75 chest to bar)
• 26th, Run/Toes to Bar – 2021 (90 toes to bar)
• 15th out of 20, Event 15 – 2021 (90 chest to bar)
• 17th out of 30, Friendly Fran – 2020 (45 chest to bar)
• 28th out of 30, on Mary – 2019 (240-300 chest to bar pull ups)
• 29th, Bicouplet 2 – 2018 (27 bar muscle ups)
• 31st, Triple G Chipper – 2017 (100 pull ups)

This season so far, he’s had some of his lowest finishes once again on gymnastics dense tests:

• 40th, 23.1 (ring muscle up)
• 33rd, Open 23.3 (strict wall facing handstand push ups)
• 28th, Quarterfinal Test 1 (ring muscle up and strict wall facing handstand push up)

While he’s had a couple other low finishes as well, if you were looking for one thing Fikowski wants to see as little as possible of, it’s the high volume gymnastics.

Jonne Koski

Photo Credit: Athlete’s Eye Photography

Qualified: 5th in Europe

Games Appearance: 9th (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022)

Best 2023 Season Test: Open 23.2A, Quarterfinals Test 4, Semifinals Test 2 (1st)

Worst 2023 Season Test: Quarterfinals Test 2 (35th)

Average Test Finish: 16.9

What He Does Not Want to See at the Games: Just taking this season in isolation, Koski has three event wins against this field already, he’s one of two men with that achievement. However, he also has five finishes of 27th or worse. All of those finishes come on tests that require upper body pressing or snatching: 1 RM thruster, 2 RM snatch, snatch/run, DB snatch/lunge/crossover, DB “Linda”, burpee/clean and jerk. 

Tracking his recent performances at the Games we see similar patterns:

• 31st, Hat Trick (DB snatch)
• 30th, Sandbag Ladder 
• 30th/34th, Shuttle to Overhead A/B
• 34th, Capitol (pressing of the pig, but heavy implements at the end as well)

In 2021 he was much better overall than 2022, his three worst events were the 1 RM Snatch (17th out of 20) and both of the clean/run workouts (25th/24th). To keep it simple, the less lifting the better for Koski.

Jayson Hopper

Photo Credit: Athlete’s Eye Photography

Qualified: 2nd in North America East

Games Appearance: 3rd (2021, 2022)

Best 2023 Season Test: Semifinals Test 1, Semifinals Test 4, Semifinals Test 7 (2nd)

Worst 2023 Season Test: Open 23.3 (37th)

Average Test Finish: 16.4

What He Does Not Want to See at the Games: Hopper is nearly the opposite of Koski. His four worst finishes this year, and his three worst finishes at the Games last year, all come on gymnastics dense tests. 

• 2023 season: 37th, Open 23.3. 32nd, Quarterfinal Test 5. 28th, Semifinal Test 2. 29th, Semifinal Test 6
• 2022 Games: 30th, Up and Over (ring muscle ups). 29th, Elevated Elizabeth (parallel bar traverse and dips). 28th, Speed Skill Medley (peg boards and pistols). 

So while Koski is looking for as little weightlifting as possible, Hopper is looking for less gymnastics. 

Noah Ohlsen

Photo Credit: CrossFit LLC

Qualified: 7th in North America East

Games Appearance: 10th (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022)

Best 2023 Season Test: Open 23.3, Semifinals Test 6 (2nd)

Worst 2023 Season Test: Semifinals Test 4 (33rd)

Average Test Finish: 15.9

What He Does Not Want to See at the Games: Out of the 14 worst test finishes Ohlsen has had from this season, the 2022 Games, and the 2021 Games:

• 4 of them are 1 Rep Max tests (thruster, snatch, sandbag, snatch)
• Only two of them don’t directly involve something notably heavy (shuttle to overhead A, Running/Toes to Bar from 2021 Games)
• Heavy implements in these tests include:
  • Thrusters, Clean and Jerks, Barbell and Dumbbell Snatches
  • The pig (twice), heavy sandbags (4 times)
  • And machines, which aren’t heavy, but do require high power output (3 times)

Very similarly to Koski, the less heavy implements that show up the better for Ohlsen as he attempts to round out 10 years of individual competition with perhaps one more top-ten finish at the Games.

Roman Khrennikov

Photo Credit: Athlete’s Eye Photography

Qualified: 4th in North America East

Games Appearance: 3rd (2020, 2022)

Best 2023 Season Test: Open 23.1 (1st)

Worst 2023 Season Test: Semifinals Test 2 (36th)

Average Test Finish: 14.6

What He Does Not Want to See at the Games: The number one thing Khrennikov would like to not see at the Games in any way is ring muscle-ups. Given that we’ve had them at all stages of the season already (Open, Quarterfinals, Semifinals), he might get his wish. In the last four live competitions he’s done, the ring muscle ups workout has been his worst finish:

• 2023 Semifinal test 2: 36th against this field
• 2023 WZA: 14th Rings and Squats
• 2022 Rogue: 17th out of 20: the Goblet
• 2022 CrossFit Games: 15th Up and Over

Other than muscle ups, two other things that have shown up in multiple instances on some of his worst workouts are burpees and snatches. However, those finishes have been much less costly than the ring muscle up tests.

Samuel Kwant

Photo Credit: Athlete’s Eye Photography

Qualified: 3rd in North America West

Games Appearance: 6th (2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2022)

Best 2023 Season Test: Semifinals Test 6 (5th)

Worst 2023 Season Test: Quarterfinals Test 2, Quarterfinals Test 3 (34th)

Average Test Finish: 18.9

What He’s Hoping to See at the Games: So far this year, Kwants top three finishes have all come on workouts with the rowing machine involved (10th Open workout 23.1, 7th Quarterfinal Test 4, and 5th Semifinal Test 6). Although that’s only one top-five finish, Kwant had six top-five finishes at the Games last season. One of those included a rower (5th on Jackie Pro), another was on “Rinse N Repeat”, and while he’s a strong swimmer, the proficiency on the ski erg was also critical on that test. The rest of his top finishes came on things that are difficult to test anywhere other than the Games and generally involved being “farm strong”: 4th on the “Capitol” and “Up and Over”, 2nd on “Alpaca”, and 5th on the “Back Nine”. Odd object strength and machine workouts are his bread and butter.

Will Moorad

Photo Credit: Athlete’s Eye Photography

Qualified: 6th in North America East

Games Appearance: 5th (2014, 2019, 2021, 2022)

Best 2023 Season Test: Open 23.2A, Semifinals Test 6 (4th)

Worst 2023 Season Test: Semifinals Test 7 (33th)

Average Test Finish: 18.9

What He’s Hoping to See at the Games: Moorad’s top finishes this year feature running and strict wall facing handstands pushups. He also won “Echo Press” at the Games last year and had decent back-to-back finishes of 13th and 19th on “Shuttle to Overhead A and B”. The year before he was second on the 550 meter run and fifth on running/toes to bar. Keep an eye out for him on tests which feature handstand pushups or running as the dominant element of the workout.

Lazar Đukić

Photo Credit: Athlete’s Eye Photography

Qualified: 1st in Europe

Games Appearance: 3rd (2021, 2022)

Best 2023 Season Test: Semifinals Test 1, Semifinals Test 2 (5th)

Worst 2023 Season Test: Open 23.2B (36th)

Average Test Finish: 18.5

What He’s Hoping to See at the Games: The biggest pattern in terms of Lazar’s best performances both this season, and over the last two years at the Games, is his proficiency with upper body pulling. His best finishes this year involved pulling the heavy sled, weighted ring muscle ups, and dumbbell snatches. At the Games, events he has excelled at include swimming and kayaking, high volume chest to bar and toes to bar, ski erg, rowing, bar muscle ups, rope climbs, and pegboards. Granted there are other elements in some of those workouts, but generally speaking: let this man pull and watch him have a top-ten performance. 

Jay Crouch

Photo Credit: Athlete’s Eye Photography

Qualified: 1st in Oceania

Games Appearance: 4th (2020, 2021, 2022)

Best 2023 Season Test: Semifinals Test 1 (3rd)

Worst 2023 Season Test: Semifinals Test 4 (35th)

Average Test Finish: 18.1

What He’s Hoping to See at the Games: To begin with, Crouch is a relatively good runner: 9th on running/burpee pull ups in the Open, third on semifinal test 1, 7th on Semifinal Test 5. Despite everything else, top tens on all the running tests so far. This tracks with good finishes on the events 7 (run/clean) and 10 (run/toes to bar) at the 2021 Games. His other area of excellence seems to be upper body pressing: burpees in 23.2A, strict handstand pushups on 6th place finishes for both 23.2 and Quarterfinal Test 1, 14th on “Elevated Elizabeth” and 16th on “Shuttle to Overhead B” at the 2022 Games, 5th on Event 4 (thruster/wall walk), and 15th on Event 8 (handstand walking course) at the 2021 Games. 

Cole Greashaber

Photo Credit: Athlete’s Eye Photography

Qualified: 4th in North America West

Games Appearance: 2nd (2022)

Best 2023 Season Test: Open 23.1 (2nd)

Worst 2023 Season Test: Open 23.2B (34th)

Average Test Finish: 17.7

What He’s Hoping to See at the Games: Machines and upper body pressing. This season, he’s been 13th or better seven out of 16 times against this field. Of those seven events machines have been present three times (23.1 rowing, Quarterfinal Test 4 rowing, bike, ski erg, and air runner Semifinal Test 1), while pressing of some kind has been present on three of the other tests (23.2 and Quarterfinal Test 1- strict handstand push-ups, Semifinal Test 3- dumbbell bench). His only two top-ten finishes at the Games last year follow suit 6th on “Elevated Elizabeth” (parallel bars plus dips) and eighth on “Rinse N Repeat” (swimming plus ski erg).

James Sprague

Photo Credit: Athlete’s Eye Photography

Qualified: 11th in North America East

Games Appearance: 1st (Rookie)

Best 2023 Season Test: Quarterfinals Test 2, Semifinals Test 1 (4th)

Worst 2023 Season Test: Semifinals Test 4 (39th)

Average Test Finish: 21.2

What He’s Hoping to See at the Games: Sprague is a monostructural monster. Not only do all four of his top-10 finishes so far this season feature at least one monostructural element, there was a run of four-straight workouts featuring monostructural implements at the Syndicate Crown last year in which Sprague went 1st, 2nd, 6th and 4th. Many of these workouts also feature midline stability and stamina over a longer period of time. So, if you’re looking for a workout he can threaten for a top-five finish in, those elements in combination should get your attention. 

Fabian Beneito

Photo Credit: Athlete’s Eye Photography

Qualified: 11th in Europe

Games Appearance: 1st (Rookie)

Best 2023 Season Test: Open 23.2B, Quarterfinals Test 1, Quarterfinals Test 3 (4th)

Worst 2023 Season Test: Semifinals Test 3 (40th)

Average Test Finish: 20.4

What He’s Hoping to See at the Games: The three listed “best” tests this year are all fourth place finishes against the Games field, they all came in online competition, and they all came on tests with an upper body press (thruster, strict handstand pushups, burpees and jerks) as key components of the workout. If you factor in his event wins from Dubai last year, the specific style of workout he will likely be best at is short time domain (seven minutes or less) with moderate to heavy weights and reps of barbell or dumbbell cycling (specifically thrusters, cleans, or clean and jerks).

Björgvin Karl Guðmundsson

Photo Credit: Athlete’s Eye Photography

Qualified: 8th in Europe

Games Appearance: 10th (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022)

Best 2023 Season Test: Semifinals Test 6 (6th)

Worst 2023 Season Test: Semifinals Test 3 (36th)

Average Test Finish: 19.9

What He’s Hoping to See at the Games: Guðmundsson’s best performances this season are mostly in line with the best events in his long tenure at the Games. Generally speaking, he’s a top-10 threat on workouts featuring biking, running, and swimming as well as handstand walking, handstand pushups, and variations of upper body gymnastics pulling. When it comes to the barbell he is historically better with a snatch or overhead squat than he is with a clean or a press. 

Nick Mathew

Photo Credit: Athlete’s Eye Photography

Qualified: 7th in North America West

Games Appearance: 2nd (2022)

Best 2023 Season Test: Quarterfinals Test 2 (6th)

Worst 2023 Season Test: Semifinals Test 7 (39th)

Average Test Finish: 19.6

What He’s Hoping to See at the Games: Mathew has had five finishes between 6th and 9th already this season: Open workout 23.2A, Quarterfinal Tests 2 and 3, and Semifinal Tests 2 and 3. So basically just look for him on any test that’s numbered 2 or 3. Kidding. In everyone of those tests there was either a press (burpee, jerk + burpee, muscle upu + burpee, db bench) except for Quarterfinal Test 2 which featured the crossover single under and we found out last year at the Games that he’s pretty good with a jump rope during “Speed Skill Medley”…which also featured the press to handstand. He’s a little more multidimensional than that, but a majority of his best finishes the last two seasons involved upper body pressing of some kind.

Jack Farlow

Photo Credit: Athlete’s Eye Photography

Qualified: 10th in North America East

Games Appearance: 1st (Rookie)

Best 2023 Season Test: Open 23.2B (1st)

Worst 2023 Season Test: Semifinals Test 2 (38th)

Average Test Finish: 19.7

What He’s Hoping to See at the Games: No real surprise here, Farlow is strong, especially with the barbell. First place in the Open with a 317 LB thruster, 4th at Semis with a 300 LB snatch, 6th in Quarters with the 275 LB clean and jerks mark his three best finishes. Boding well for him in terms of not being completely unilateral are the 10th place and 12th place on Semifinal Tests 5 and 6 though. Either way, when thinking about what he can do best in, the lower the reps and heavier the load for anything involving a barbell is a good place to watch for Farlow…i.e fourth place on “Heavy Grace” last offseason at the Rogue Invitational.

Chandler Smith

Photo Credit: Athlete’s Eye Photography

Qualified: 6th in North America West

Games Appearance: 4th (2019, 2020, 2021)

Best 2023 Season Test: Semifinals Test 3 (3rd)

Worst 2023 Season Test: Semifinals Test 7 (37th)

Average Test Finish: 21.9

What He’s Hoping to See at the Games: Give this man a barbell and some upper body pressing. His best three finishes have come on dumbbell “Linda” (3rd), the max snatch (8th at 295 LBs), and Open Test 23.3 with snatches and handstand pushups. His only top-ten finish at the 2021 Games came on the echo bike / snatch workout as well. His next two best finishes came in events that featured increasing weight cleans (Event 6, 11th place) and thrusters and wall walks (Event 4, 13th place).

Cole Sager

Photo Credit: Athlete’s Eye Photography

Qualified: 9th in North America West

Games Appearance: 10th (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022)

Best 2023 Season Test: Quarterfinals Test 1, Quarterfinals Test 2 (9th)

Worst 2023 Season Test: Open 23.2 B (39th)

Average Test Finish: 22.0

What He’s Hoping to See at the Games: Of his top six finishes this year, all of which range from 9th to 16th, there are nearly no movements that show up more than twice. The three movements that do show up twice are running, muscle ups, and moderate weight snatching. Sager is very well rounded, but those three movements are in fact things he has a good history with at the CrossFit Games too. In the last two seasons alone at least four of his top-six performances feature at least one of those movements as well:

2022 CrossFit Games

3rd – “Jackie Pro” = rowing, thrusters, bar muscle ups

7th – “Up and Over” = ring muscle ups, jumping variations, overhead lunge

5th – “Shuttle to Overhead A” = running

2021 CrossFit Games

4th – Event 10 = running and toes to bar

1st – Event 11 = peg board, double under, moderate weight dumbbell over head squat

8th – Event 5 = rope climb, ski, sandbag carry

Spencer Panchik

Photo Credit: Athlete’s Eye Photography

Qualified: 12th in North America East

Games Appearance: 2nd (2022)

Best 2023 Season Test: Quarterfinals Test 5 (6th)

Worst 2023 Season Test: Semifinals Test 1 (40th)

Average Test Finish: 20.8

What He’s Hoping to See at the Games: Spencer Panchik has four top tens this year in competition against this year’s qualifiers, and he had four top ten finishes last year at the 2022 CrossFit Games. Of those eight top ten finishes, six of them involved an upper body press:

2023 Games Season

• 9th – “23.2B” = 296 LB thruster
• 7th – Quarterfinal Test 1 = front squat, muscle-ups, handstand push-ups
• 6th – Quarterfinal Test 5 = snatch/, running
• 9th – Semifinal Test 6 = overhead squats, pirouettes, legless, handstand push-ups

2022 CrossFit Games

• 5th – “Bike to Work”
• 7th – “Shuttle to Overhead B”
• 10th – “Up and Over”
• 6th – “Echo Press”

Colten Mertens

Photo Credit: Athlete’s Eye Photography

Qualified: 8th in North America West

Games Appearance: 3rd (2021, 2022)

Best 2023 Season Test: Semifinals Test 3 (1st)

Worst 2023 Season Test: Semifinals Test 5 (39th)

Average Test Finish: 21.6

What He’s Hoping to See at the Games: Six top tens, and six bottom tens, but more so than ever it feels like he is set up for some very high end events at the Games. Of those six top tens, five of them involved a squat, and all six of them involve an upper body press:

• 4th – Open 23.2 A = running and burpee pull ups
• 6th – Open 23.2 B = 302 LB thruster
• 10th – Quarterfinal Test 1 = front squats, muscle ups handstand pushups
• 2nd – Semifinal Test 2 = muscle ups, pistols, burpee box jump overs
• 1st – Semifinal Test 3 = deadlift, dumbbell bench, squat clean
• 7th – Semifinal Test 6 = overhead squat, handstand pirouettes, handstand push ups, seated legless rope climbs

Moritz Fiebig

Photo Credit: Athlete’s Eye Photography

Qualified: 3rd in Europe

Games Appearance: 2nd (2022)

Best 2023 Season Test: Open 23.2 B, Semifinals Test 2 (7th)

Worst 2023 Season Test: Semifinals Test 6 (40th)

Average Test Finish: 20.9

What He’s Hoping to See at the Games: If anything stands out for Fiebig across a fairly diverse skill set this year, it’s his upper body pulling and core stamina with a 10th place on Quarterfinal Test 5 ending with the nine rope climbs, and 7th on Semifinal Test 2 with the ruck ring muscle ups. That’s in addition to his only top-ten finish from the 2022 Games of 9th on “Bike to Work” which included 150 gymnastics reps – 75 which were toes-to-bar, and those were also important to his 11th place finish on Semifinal Test 7. And yes, we know he has a last place finish on Semifinal Test 6 when he got stuck on the seated legless rope climbs, causing us to wonder whether that is a  movement he is going to continue performing poorly with, or if something else was going on during that one.

Jelle Hoste

Photo Credit: Kevin Dijkstra

Qualified: 4th in Europe

Games Appearance: 1st (Rookie)

Best 2023 Season Test: Semifinals Test 1, Semifinals Test 5 (1st)

Worst 2023 Season Test: Open 23.3 (40th)

Average Test Finish: 23.4

What He’s Hoping to See at the Games: Hoste has as many highs and lows as anyone in the field; he has five top-sevens (including two event wins), but also seven bottom-ten finishes. So 75% of the time he’s in either the top or bottom quarter. As far as the good stuff, any horizontal displacement of an object or machine work is going to be a sweet spot for him.

Luke Parker

Photo Credit: CrossFit LLC

Qualified: 8th in North America East

Games Appearance: 1st (Rookie)

Best 2023 Season Test: Semifinals Test 4, Semifinals Test 7 (5th)

Worst 2023 Season Test: Semifinals Test 1 (37th)

Average Test Finish: 22.3

What He’s Hoping to See at the Games: Four of Parker’s five best finishes came during Semifinals. I would say in general this bodes well for him as I’ll always favor an athlete who shows up in live competition. His 300 LB snatch was good enough for 5th. For a bigger, powerful athlete, his 13th place performance on Semifinal Test 2 and 12th place on Quarterfinal Test 5 stand out and demonstrates his versatility, which includes proficiency for high volume upper body pulling gymnastics.

Kaique Cerveny

Photo Credit: CrossFit LLC

Qualified: 1st in South America

Games Appearance: 1st (Rookie)

Best 2023 Season Test: Quarterfinals Test 5 (5th)

Worst 2023 Season Test: Quarterfinals Test 1 (38th)

Average Test Finish: 22.4

What He’s Hoping to See at the Games: Kaique actually has top-half finishes on half of the tests already this season, three of which were top-sevens, and all three of those featured weightlifting. He’s another strong upper body puller in the field, 5th on the final Quarterfinal test and seventh on the max snatch at Semis. His other seventh came on dumbbell “Linda”. 

Alex Vigneault

Photo Credit: Athlete’s Eye Photography

Qualified: 9th in North America East

Games Appearance: 6th (2015, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2022)

Best 2023 Season Test: Semifinals Test 7 (4th)

Worst 2023 Season Test: Open 23.2 B, Quarterfinals Test 1 (40th)

Average Test Finish: 22.4

What He’s Hoping to See at the Games: Anything with machines seems to bode well for Vigneault. Fourth on Test 7 at Semis, ninth on Test 1, and seventh on Quarterfinal Test 4. His weightlifting is solid to with finishes of 13th on both the clean and jerk Quarterfinal test and the max snatch. 

Uldis Upenieks

Photo Credit: Athlete’s Eye Photography

Qualified: 6th in Europe

Games Appearance: 4th (2019, 2021, 2022)

Best 2023 Season Test: Quarterfinals Test 1 (8th)

Worst 2023 Season Test: Semifinals Test 4 (38th)

Average Test Finish: 21.8

What He’s Hoping to See at the Games: Five finishes of 16th or better so far thus season, including all the tests which include running of some kind. He won “Shuttle to Overhead A” last year at the Games and was third on the running / toes to bar the year before. He has high capacity for upper body pressing gymnastics as well, but if you’re looking for his best stuff, it should be when running is the most important part of a test. 

Morteza Sedaghat

Photo Credit: Erin Henderson

Qualified: 2nd in Asia

Games Appearance: 1st (Rookie)

Best 2023 Season Test: Open 23.2 B (2nd)

Worst 2023 Season Test: Quarterfinals Test 4, Semifinals Test 7 (40th)

Average Test Finish: 25.8

What He’s Hoping to See at the Games: Sedaghat is one of those athletes who will be hoping their strengths show up early in the weekend. Not only was he second against this field with the thruster in the Open of 315 LBs, he was third on Quarterfinal Test 3 (clean and jerks at 275), and fifth on Quarterfinal Test 1 (front squats and gymnastics). All three of those workouts were moderately heavy and involved the barbell in the front rack at some point, plus an upper body press of some kind (thruster, clean and jerk, strict handstand push ups). So if you’re looking for the workout that he can excel at, be on the lookout for that combination.

David Shorunke

Photo Credit: CrossFit LLC

Qualified: 7th in Europe

Games Appearance: 2nd (2020)

Best 2023 Season Test: Quarterfinals Test 3 (2nd)

Worst 2023 Season Test: Semifinals Test 2 (39th)

Average Test Finish: 24.8

What He’s Hoping to See at the Games: Strength tests, but not snatching. Shorunke was second on the 275 LB clean and jerks during Quarters, and seventh best on two different Semifinal tests: Test 1 with the heavy sled pulls and Test 3, dumbbell “Linda”. The fact that a heavy snatch was already tested likely bodes well for him in the sense that strength will probably be tested by another means, many of which can be very good for Shorunke.

Jake Douglas

Photo Credit: CrossFit LLC

Qualified: 3rd in Oceania

Games Appearance: 1st (Rookie)

Best 2023 Season Test: Semifinals Test 4 (1st)

Worst 2023 Season Test: Quarterfinals Test 2 (40th)

Average Test Finish: 24.7

What He’s Hoping to See at the Games: The first test winner we’ve seen, of course Douglas would love to see the heavy snatch show up again somehow, some way. His second best finish was seventh on Open Test 23.3…which featured increasing weight snatches as well. Douglas, of course, is just strong in general, a 12th place on the clean and jerk test during Quarters rounds out his top-three performances against the Games field thus far; give him some moderately heavy barbell cycling and expect a strong performance. 

Bronislaw Olenkowicz

Photo Credit: Athlete’s Eye Photography

Qualified: 9th in Europe

Games Appearance: 2nd (2019)

Best 2023 Season Test: Semifinals Test 4 (9th)

Worst 2023 Season Test: Semifinals Test 5 (38th)

Average Test Finish: 23.1

What He’s Hoping to See at the Games: Bronislaw recorded six test finishes between ninth and 16th this year already. Everyone of those tests had barbell or dumbbell weight lifting as a prominent feature (which should come as a surprise to no one). How well he’s able to do at the Games will come down to how many more traditional weight lifting tests show up on the first two days of competition because as long as that is the significant element of a test you can pencil him in for a top-15 finish.

Henrik Haapalainen

Photo Credit: Athlete’s Eye Photography

Qualified: 2nd in Europe

Games Appearance: 3rd (2021, 2022)

Best 2023 Season Test: Semifinals Test 1 (6th)

Worst 2023 Season Test: Open 23.2 B (37th)

Average Test Finish: 22.4

What He’s Hoping to See at the Games: Other than Semifinal Test 1, four of his next five best finishes all came during Quarterfinals. None of those four were top-10 finishes, but the consistent finishes on workouts with a lot of variability could be something that favors him at the Games. He doesn’t seem to be lacking in skills, or strength, or capacity necessarily, which means what Haapalainen is hoping for is great balance to the programming from the beginning. 

Jason Smith

Photo Credit: CrossFit LLC

Qualified: 1st in Africa

Games Appearance: 4th (2017, 2019, 2021)

Best 2023 Season Test: Quarterfinals Test 2 (27th)

Worst 2023 Season Test: Open 23.2 A, Quarterfinals Test 3, Quarterfinals Test 5, Semifinals Test 4, Semifinals Test 5 (40th)

Average Test Finish: 37.2

What He’s Hoping to See at the Games: Most of his performances this season relative to the field have been towards the bottom. But in 2021 he did finish 4th at the Games on Test 2. He’s competing in the elite division at an age we really haven’t seen before, so how well he’s able to keep up is a bit of an unknown on the men’s side in general. 

Arthur Semenov

Photo Credit: CrossFit LLC

Qualified: 1st in Asia

Games Appearance: 2nd (2022)

Best 2023 Season Test: Semifinals Test 4 (6th)

Worst 2023 Season Test: Semifinals Test 2 (40th)

Average Test Finish: 29.2

What He’s Hoping to See at the Games: In addition to his 6th place Snatch at 295 LBs he had the 8th best thruster in this field at 298 LBs. He was also 15th on Semifinal Test 1. So, give this man a heavy barbell, heavy sled, and some machine work, and he can throw a wrench into the scoring tables on certain events for sure. 

Michal Wesolowski

Photo Credit: Athlete’s Eye Photography

Qualified: 10th in Europe

Games Appearance: 1st (Rookie)

Best 2023 Season Test: Open 23.2 B, Semifinals Test 5 (13th)

Worst 2023 Season Test: Quarterfinals Test 3, Quarterfinals Test 5 (39th)

Average Test Finish: 26.7

What He’s Hoping to See at the Games: Based on this season alone, it seems Wesolowski is a decent runner notching his top two finishes on the running heavy tests in both the Open and Semis. Generally the Games features running in several time domains, don’t be surprised if he pops up with a decent performance on at least one of them. 

Kalyan Souza

Photo Credit: CrossFit LLC

Qualified: 2nd in South America

Games Appearance: 1st (Rookie)

Best 2023 Season Test: Semifinals Test 7 (10th)

Worst 2023 Season Test: Quarterfinals Test 2 (38th)

Average Test Finish: 26.4

What He’s Hoping to See at the Games: Kalyan seems to be powerful and strong, tenth on the semifinal finale, but also had a 287 LB thruster and 290 LB snatch which were both good enough for top 20 finishes. 

Bayley Martin

Photo Credit: CrossFit LLC

Qualified: 2nd in Oceania

Games Appearance: 1st (Rookie)

Best 2023 Season Test: Semifinals Test 2 (7th)

Worst 2023 Season Test: Quarterfinals Test 2 (39th)

Average Test Finish: 26.2

What He’s Hoping to See at the Games: While high skill gymnastics seems to be his most impressive trait (he was also 10th against this field on Semifinal Test 6), Martin had some good performances elsewhere too which suggest a little more diversity in his skill set. He had what would equate to back to back top half finishes on Open Tests 23.2 A and B for example, and also managed 16th on Quarterfinal Test 3 with the 15 clean and jerks and 275 LBs.

We will continue adding athletes and athlete information in groups of five until all 40 athletes are here.