The sixth year of what appears to be the largest growing competition in the United States in recent years is set to kick off in Charleston, South Carolina. For three days the North Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center will host nearly 1500 athletes across all divisions.
The unique format of FOTC gives athletes the option, should they so choose, to compete as an individual for one and a half days, and then on a team for one and a half days. Some athletes will do one or the other, but several are also slated to do both.
With a location that is close to the airport, hotels, and several grocery stores and restaurants, traveling to Charleston for this competition as athlete or spectator is simple.
Additionally, the workouts and schedules are all known ahead of time, as Kyle Oland and his team continue to impress on the thoughtfulness and organizational side of things. Oland also took on the organization of a PGA tour event last year, and his found success in doing so was an affirmation to me that he is one of the best event organizers in the competitive fitness space, especially considering how unknown he is out side of the South East.
While the community divisions are the lifeblood of FOTC, there are also five Pro Divisions with plenty of familiar names and faces getting ready to throwdown this weekend.
Pro Male Division
Quinn Robinson had a breakout performance last year taking Dre Strohm to the wire in the men’s competition. He ultimately finished second but certainly put his name on the map. He comes in as one of the podium favorites.
Ben Sexton who placed third at FOTC in 2023 also had an impressive run at Crash Crucible a few months ago placing 11th. He’s got plenty of solid competition experience and will likely be in the mix throughout.
Reilly Good has had a very successful year on the team front with CrossFit 1124 in both the Games season and two weekends ago at TYR WZA, he also was the individual winner of Beach Brawl 2024 showing he has some individual podium potential as well.
Brandon Smith has been just shy of a few elite/pro division podiums, but did win the TYR WZA Rx division in 2024. He has been building towards a solid comp and has breakout potential this weekend.
Kaiden Myers is not yet 20 years old, and he may struggle on the heavy squat cleans. However, aside from that one implement, he has the skills and fitness for some top 3 finishes this weekend and will likely leave some of the men who are 10+ years older than him scratching their heads at least once.
Podium Picks:
- Brandon Smith 1st
- Reilly Good 2nd
- Quinn Robinson 3rd
Pro Female Division
Amanda Fischer returns to defend her title. Check out our preview podcast with her for a little look back at her success in her inaugural FOTC experience last year. Like Good, she also comes in as defending Beach Brawl champion from 2024.
Emma Harvang makes her debut at FOTC and enters the competition with the highest rating globally. Her two most recent competitions saw her place 7th at IF3 Worlds and 8th at Crash Crucible. The path to a podium finish should be more open in this field than either of those.
Makenna Enslin is also making a rookie appearance at FOTC this year, but comes in with some significant experiences elsewhere. She has been inside the top 75 globally in each of the lats two years’ quarterfinals, and went on to place 40th and then 23rd at the highly competitive NA East Semifinal in 2023 and 2024 respectively.
Chloe Carano has two podium finishes in the last year, 3rd at Metcon Rush and 3rd at the MBS Turkey Challenge. She’s been growing in confidence through her competition experience and will be looking to make it three podiums in the last eight months this weekend.
Kristine Best has been so good at this sport for so long that she absolutely cannot be overlooked in this field. She has been primarily competing on teams the last two years, so there isn’t exactly recent individual data for her, but she made the Games back in 2020, and came dangerously close in 2022, so I think it’s fair to say she’s still got some serious fitness.
Podium Picks
- Makenna Enslin 1st
- Amanda Fischer 2nd
- Kristine Best 3rd
Pro Teams will take over the competition floor beginning Saturday afternoon. With the density of a one and half day competition window, some of the athletes coming off the individual competitions, others starting fresh, two separate two part workouts, and a highly competitive field with no clear favorites, all three of these divisions should be pretty damn entertaining. Margins for error will be small, races will be tight, and the atmosphere will be eclectic as it always is at FOTC. I’ll offer my picks here, and leave the rest up to the athletes!
Pro Men Teams Podium Picks
- Owen Bernstein and Jake Marconi 1st
- Kevin Steinhaus and Josh Hardin 2nd
- Evan Rogers and Tristan Faure 3rrd
- *Ryan Fitzpatrick and Zachary Greer (don’t count them out)
- *Ben Sexton and Alexander Majors (don’t count them out)
Pro Women Teams Podium Picks
- Caroline Klutz and Stevie Dellinger 1st
- Allison Nguyen and Gabrielle Ocher 2nd
- Kristine Best and Callista Lang 3rd
- *Emma Harvang and Emily Meyer (don’t count them out)
Also, special shoutout to Jamie Latimer and Hailey Rolfe, they are over 20 years apart and are competing together in this division- very cool!
Pro CoEd Teams Podium Picks
This is the most difficult division to make picks for, there are at least seven teams I could see making this podium.
- Reilly Good and Ashley Cope 1st
- Mike Needleman and Jordan Adcock 2nd
- Quinn Robinson and Brynn Carrick 3rd
Others to watch:
- Amanda Fischer and Jordan Lundin
- Danielle Dunlap and Brandon Foor
- Korby Foxall and Kelly Benfey
- Robert Yates and Elle Stuart
- Justin Reidelbach and Courtney Piktel
- Mike Olivas and Julia Cook, all the way from California!
Live Streams
Tune in to all the action starting at the pool on Friday morning at 8 am EST.
There are a few scheduling conflicts with multiple Pro divisions streaming at the same time, but we will bring you as much of the action as we can throughout the weekend!
What do you think?
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