Madrid Championship Preview and Predictions

Photo Credit: Héctor Estévez

The 2023 Madrid Championship starts Thursday, September 7. This year it’s a four day event for the elite divisions, which will be broadcast in English on YouTube and in Spanish on DAZN.  

The rosters for the elite individual divisions were preliminary announced via the Madrid Championship Instagram, but that was a couple weeks ago. We’ve been able to obtain the updated roster of competitors and are making some predictions based on that, and the workouts which have already been announced (it appears six of the seven scored events for the elite divisions have been released). 

Elite Individual Tests

Elite Team Tests

Men’s Preview and Predictions

There are three men in the elite individual field who just competed at the 2023 CrossFit Games, and several others who have in the past. Based on the most current roster, here are our top-20 picks for the elite men’s division: 

Jonne Koski was 6th at the Games this year, the highest placing finisher amongst all European men at the Games. Lazar Đukić, 9th at the Games, joined him in the top-ten, something he can now say he’s done for three consecutive years. Đukić was the top European athlete last season, Koski holds that title now, so the battle is on! 

Travis Mayer missed this year giving his body a chance to heal, but he’s ready. He competed here last year and got off to a slow start that held him back from potentially winning. He should be ready to go on multiple fronts and is a contender to be sure. 

Women’s Preview and Predictions

Although it hasn’t been released yet, Karin Freyova will join Victoria Campos in this field as the only two 2023 Games athletes. Freyova has to come in as the favorite, and we get a great chance to see Campos go against a formidable European women’s field. The road to the podium won’t be easy though as there are several women who have either been at the Games before, narrowly missed it this year, or are likely to be there soon in Spain this weekend. Here are our top-20 picks for the women’s elite division: 

Dahlstrom, Helgadottir, and Carratala will each be looking to make a statement that missing the Games this season does not mean they can’t still compete well against a strong field in Europe. Anikha Greer missed making her first Games in the North American East semifinal by incredibly small margins. She’s an up-and-comer in the sport for sure, and it will be entertaining to see her battle against some established veterans from Europe. 

Elite Team Preview and Predictions

The team rosters have been changing a bit of late, and we won’t be 100% on some of these until registration. In the meantime, based on what we have been able to gather, here are the top-10 teams we’re looking at: