Katrín Davíðsdóttir: Analyzing the Career of One of the Greats

Photo Credits: CrossFit LLC

Just a couple of weeks after one of the best men to ever do it (Brent Fikowski) retired, one of the great female champions in our sport officially brings an end to her competitive career in CrossFit as well. 

Katrín Tanja Davíðsdóttir stole the hearts of the CrossFit world during the 2015 and 2016 seasons as she followed in the footsteps of one of her role models, Annie Thorisdottir, and became the second female athlete to win back-to-back CrossFit Games titles. Her story during that time, alongside side coach Ben Bergeron, undoubtedly help not just captivate tens of thousands to pursue their own health and fitness journeys, but likely also redefined how women embraced what a healthy, strong body could be. 

She would go on to have one of the most consistent stretches of elite performances at the CrossFit Games that any athlete, male or female, has been able to achieve. Six consecutive top-five finishes, four podium finishes in that stretch, and the two titles, put her in the conversation as one of the best women we’ve ever seen take the floor.

Katrin Davidsdottir Career Achievements

Open: 

• 21st Worldwide in very first Open, 2012
• Hasn’t missed an Open since then
• Best Open finish 8th in 2018
• 8 career top-25 Open finishes
• Average finish of 65 (42nd if you drop 2024)

Quarterfinals:

• Top-70 Worldwide the first three years it existed (she qualified but didn’t compete in 2024)

Regionals:

• 7-time Regional qualifier (2012-2018)
• 6th or better every year
• 2x Regional Champion (2016 and 2018)
• Average Regional Finish: 2.4

Handstand Walking Legend:

From 2014 to 2020 there were 13 handstand walking event in the CrossFit Games season. She placed 35th or better in the world on all three Open workouts, won four out of five Regional handstand walking events, and placed top-10 in four events that had handstand walking at the Games, including winning two of them, taking a fourth, fifth and two tenths, came in a field of 75 who were still in the field during “Second Cut” of the 2019 Games. 

Against a varying number of athletes in the field, ranging from as few as 40 to the hundreds of thousands of athletes competing in the worldwide Open, she had an average event finish of 8.3 on all handstand walking events in the Games season across those seven seasons.

Katrin – HS Walks
2018 Reg Event 3	3 (region; 10:26)15 WW
2017 Reg Event 4	1st East/5th WW (6:45.31)
2016 Reg Event 6 *minimal HS walking	1st WW (9:50.18)
2015 Reg Event 4 (only HS walking)	1st WW (1:19.8)
2014 Reg Event 2 (only HS walking)	1st WW (405 ft)
2019 Games “Second Cut”	10th- 6:58.42
2018 Games “Handstand Walk”	5th- 2:05.52
2017 Games “Strongman’s Fear”	1st- 3:55.53
2016 Games “Handstand Walk”	1st- 1:33.68
Open 18.4	9
Open 19.3	35
Open 20.3	20

Semifinals:

• 3rd online German Throwdown 2021
• 6th Strength in Depth 2022; 3rd LCQ 2022
• 2nd North America West Semifinal 2023
• Average Semifinal Finish: 3.7

Sanctionals Era:

• 2018-2019
  • 1st Fittest in Cape Town
  • 4th Rogue Invitational 2019
• 2019-2020
  • 13th Rogue Invitational (online)

Wodapalooza

• Individual
  • 5th place, 2015
  • 1st place, 2018
• Team
  • 2nd, teams of 3 with Annie Thorisdottir and Mal O’ Brien, 2023

Rogue Invitational

• Outside of Sanctional years, 15th in 2021
• Average finish 10.7

CrossFit Games

• 10 x CFG Qualifier
• 2 x CFG Champion (2015, 2016)
• Runner Up 2020
• 3rd place 2018
• Average finish: 8.7 (6.3 if you drop rookie season)
• 6 consecutive top 5s from (2015-2020_
• Final 8 appearances were all in the top 10

CrossFit Games Event Wins

• 13 career event wins
  • A least one in six consecutive years (only Fraser and Toomey had longer streaks of years with at least one win at the Games- they each had 7)
  • 2015 – Petal to the Medal 2
  • 2016 – Double DT, Handstand Walk, Plow
  • 2017 – Strongman’s Fear, 2223 Intervals
  • 2018 – Fibonacci, Chaos
  • 2019 – Ringer 1 and Ringer 2
  • 2020 Stage 1 – Nasty Nancy, Handstand Hold
  • 2020 Stage 2 – Ranch Loop
• 3rd Most CFG Event wins amongst women (Toomey, Thorisdottir)
• 5th Most CFG Event wins all time (Fraser, Froning)

Top-10 All-Time Athlete

It’s always fun to assess an athlete of Katrin’s caliber amongst the all-time greats. On the women’s side there is no debate for the top overall spot, but arguably the next three women could be sorted in a variety of ways. Despite not having the same number of titles as the other two, I am partial to Horvath as the second greatest, and have written about that in the past. Then it comes down to the two great Icelandic champions, who also happen to be great friends, and business partners. 

I Consider Katrin to be the fourth best who’s ever done it on the women’s side behind Toomey, Horvath, and Thorisdottir. Her resume from 2015-2020 is the best six-year stretch any athlete not named Toomey or Fraser has managed to put together yet in the sport.