Men’s Semifinals Power Ranking

Image Credit - Athlete’s Eye

I’ve been creating my own power rankings for the sport of CrossFit for nearly a decade. It began as a means to try to beat my friends in a version of fantasy CrossFit that I created leading into the 2014 CrossFit Games (Mat Fraser was a sleeper pick that year). 

More recently it has evolved to be my best effort at a global representation of who are actually the fittest men and women on Earth. This does not mean they are necessarily all the athletes you’ve seen at the Games, because as many of you know, the systems CrossFit has had over the years do not always find the fittest field to take the test that determines the fittest person on earth. 

Last August following the 2022 CrossFit Games I put out a top 100 worldwide rankings for men:

https://www.instagram.com/p/ChmfIK9Ap03/

This was a snapshot that included everyone who could potentially be competing as an individual for the 2023 season based on what I knew then. 

In January following all the major offseason events those were updated:

https://www.instagram.com/p/ColE52epYnk/

By this time there were 17 men from the August list who I knew would not be competing individually next season. Eleven of them would be going team, four of them were either injured or taking the season off, and the other two simply aren’t competing any more. 

May 2023, post Quarterfinals and leading into Semifinals

I wasn’t certain I was going to do a power rankings at this point in the season, however, another 24 athletes from my January list are no longer in the season including some very notable names. Given that nearly a quarter of the list is no longer competing this year, it was absolutely necessary to update the list. 

Unlike the worldwide rankings, which are confined by past performances and all the accompanying issues with that, or the strength of field allocation which factors in athletes who are not competing this season in some cases, this list only contains athletes who remain active in the 2023 individual CrossFit Games season. They have all registered for Semifinals and can be found on the Games site for their respective competitive region.

The Top 25

RANK	Athlete	Competitive Regions	Previous	Change	WWR
1	Justin Medeiros	North America West	1	0	1
2	Roman Khrennikov	North America East	2	0	7
3	Patrick Vellner	North America West	4	1	2
4	Jeffrey Adler	North America East	5	1	6
5	Jayson Hopper	North America East	6	1	9
6	Björgvin Karl Guðmundsson	Europe	7	1	3
7	Samuel Kwant	North America West	8	1	15
8	Lazar Đukić	Europe	9	1	5
9	Brent Fikowski	North America West	10	1	8
10	Guilherme Malheiros	South America	11	1	10
11	Nick Mathew	North America West	12	1	21
12	Dallin Pepper	North America East	13	1	20
13	Jonne Koski	Europe	14	1	11
14	Saxon Panchik	North America East	15	1	4
15	Chandler Smith	North America West	16	1	28
16	Noah Ohlsen	North America East	17	1	11
17	Cole Sager	North America West	18	1	13
18	Spencer Panchik	North America East	21	3	30
19	Samuel Cournoyer	North America East	22	3	69
20	Henrik Haapalainen	Europe	23	3	17
21	Jay Crouch	Oceania	24	3	18
22	Alex Vigneault	North America East	25	3	14
23	Tudor Magda	North America West	27	4	43
24	Cole Greashaber	North America West	28	4	31
25	Guillaume Briant	Europe	29	4	34

Not too much change here. Ricky Garard was previously third, removing him moves everyone up a spot. Willy Georges, Travis Mayer, and Scott Panchik were also previously on the list, their removal is what created the increases of three and four seen in ranks 18-25.

The worldwide rankings in the far right column are from CrossFit, and as you can see most of these athletes are in the top 50. The only exception being Cournoyer who competed with, and won the Games on CrossFit Mayhem Freedom team last year- therefore unknowingly foregoing most of his opportunity to earn any points in their system.

Spots 26-50

RANK	Athlete	Competitive Regions	Previous	Change	WWR
26	Luka Đukić	Europe	30	4	25
27	Alexandre Caron	North America East	32	5	26
28	Moritz Fiebig	Europe	33	5	32
29	Tyler Christophel	North America East	34	5	34
30	Bill Leahy IV	North America West	36	6	87
31	Uldis Upenieks	Europe	37	6	16
32	Will Moorad	North America East	38	6	19
33	Giorgos Karavis	Europe	39	6	23
34	Enrico Zenoni	Europe	40	6	48
35	Alex Kotoulas	Europe	42	7	39
36	Jake Berman	North America East	43	7	42
37	Colten Mertens	North America West	44	7	24
38	Fabian Beneito	Europe	45	7	38
39	James Sprague	North America East	46	7	52
40	Bayley Martin	Oceania	47	7	115
41	Mitchel Stevenson	North America West	48	7	72
42	Griffin Roelle	North America East	50	8	47
43	Agustin Richelme	South America	51	8	27
44	Leonel Franco	North America West	52	8	62
45	Connor Duddy	North America East	53	8	40
46	Luka Vunjak	Europe	54	8	81
47	Jelle Hoste	Europe	56	9	378
48	Jack Farlow	North America East	58	10	57
49	Benoît Boulanger	North America East	60	11	87
50	Jake Douglas	Oceania	61	11	110

Again most of the athletes in this range are just moving up because of athletes who are not competing this year: Bayden Brown, Matt Dlugos, Austin Spencer, and Adrian Mundwiler were previously in this range, none of them are competing this year. 

We see three men who are outside the top 100 on CrossFit’s worldwide rankings who I have listed here in the top 50. Bayley Martin and Jake Douglas out of Oceania and Jelle Hoste out of Europe. Because of the skewed points systems at Semifinals, men like Martin and Douglas in Oceania don’t get as many points for relatively high finishes at their Semifinal, and also have very little opportunity to make the Games where a majority of the points are available. 

It is well documented by now that the current WWR and SoF system are skewed in the favor of the larger competitive regions and that the smaller ones have little to no chance of ever effecting change no matter how good they may get. Clearly that needs to change. 

However, with big names like Garard, Brown, Royce Dunne, and Luke de Jong out of Oceania this year, there is opportunity for us to see if some of these young men are actually competitive as top 50 athletes in the sport. If that does end up being the case, it drives home the fact even more that the current system needs to be revised – time will tell.

Spots 51-75

RANK	Athlete	Competitive Regions	Previous	Change	WWR
51	Reggie Fasa	Europe	62	11	53
52	Ludvig Hahnsson	Europe	63	11	78
53	Anthony Davis	North America West	64	11	45
54	Aniol Ekai	Europe	65	11	657
55	Jack Rozema	North America West	67	12	63
56	Bronislaw Olenkowicz	Europe	68	12	87
57	John Wood	North America West	70	13	94
58	Luke Parker	North America East	71	13	1503
59	Michael Smith	Europe	73	14	96
60	Matt Poulin	North America West	74	14	48
61	Kealan Henry	Africa	77	16	40
62	Peter Ellis	Oceania	78	16	194
63	Rees Machell	Oceania	81	18	138
64	Antoine Dumain	Europe	83	19	74
65	Denis Samsonov	North America East	85	20	133
66	Jacob Pfaff	North America East	87	21	44
67	Scott Tetlow	North America West	88	21	48
68	Luis Oscar Mora	North America West	89	21	94
69	Phillip Muscarella	North America West	91	22	84
70	Iurii Marincenco	Europe	92	22	59
71	Victor Hoffer	Europe	98	27	208
72	James Newbury	Oceania	Unranked	N/A	3977
73	David Shorunke	Europe	Unranked	N/A	1368
74	Cam Crockett	North America East	Unranked	N/A	48
75	Luke Fowler	Oceania	Unranked	N/A	198

For the first time on this list, previously unranked athletes are showing up. We see four of them sneaking into the last four spots in this section, highlighted by a couple notable names whose worldwide rankings are in the thousands. 

When advertising a system which is supposed to reflect the current competitive landscape, you need a way to account for successful and talented athletes who have taken time away from competing (for any reason), who may be returning to the competitive field of play. We have a solution to that problem that we will be releasing later this week. 

In the meantime, this section of the list is particularly important, because it is likely that 3 to 5 men from these 25 will make the Games, and most of them would be doing so for their first time. 

Spots 76-100

Rank	Athlete	Competitive Regions	Previous	Change	WWR
76	Arthur Semenov	Asia	95	19	77
77	Kaique Cerveny	South America	84	7	132
78	Travon Benton	North America West	94	16	112
79	Nikita Yundov	Europe	97	18	65
80	Peter Mason	North America East	100	20	55
81	Jacob Marlow	North America West	Unranked	N/A	281
82	Evan Rogers	North America East	Unranked	N/A	85
83	Lee Sharum	North America East	Unranked	N/A	104
84	Will Kearney	Oceania	Unranked	N/A	2855
85	Michal Wesolowski	Europe	Unranked	N/A	2169
86	Morteza Sedaghat	Asia	Unranked	N/A	122
87	Victor Ljungdal	Europe	Unranked	N/A	117
88	Lucas Heuze	Europe	Unranked	N/A	184
89	Alexander Anasagasti	Europe	Unranked	N/A	202
90	Tommaso Pieri	Europe	Unranked	N/A	61
91	Justin Rhodes	North America West	Unranked	N/A	82
92	Brian Huynh	North America West	Unranked	N/A	71
93	Roldan Goldbaum	North America West	Unranked	N/A	134
94	Tyler Lee	North America East	Unranked	N/A	90
95	Logan Ewing	North America West	Unranked	N/A	139
96	Seth Stovall	North America East	Unranked	N/A	198
97	Will Bennett	North America West	Unranked	N/A	69
98	Marquan Jones	North America East	Unranked	N/A	58
99	Nate Ackermann	North America East	Unranked	N/A	238
100	Daniel Kuc	North America West	Unranked	N/A	238

Most of the athletes on this final quarter of the list are new to the list, and most of those are from the three competitive regions which get 60 spots at Semifinals. As our previously referenced articles about True Strength of Field will show, that is indeed where the most depth is, so having these athletes who were previously just off the list occupy these spots now makes sense. 

I do still think it’s possible we see an athlete from this section make it to the Games, but more likely there are a couple athletes here who will miss the Games by a few spots despite having impressive and noteworthy Semifinal weekends which increase our interest for them in the offseason, and going into next season. 

The Next 25:

In no particular order (other than being categorized by competitive region), here are the next 25 men I considered for the top 100 at this point in the 2023 season.

Athlete	Competitive Regions
Andrei Fedotov	Asia
Ruslan Miftakhov	Asia
Ant Haynes	Asia
Jason Smith	Africa
Darren Zurnamer	Africa
Ruan Potgieter	Africa
Benjamin Gutierrez	South America
Eseteban Ospina	South America
Martín Cuervo	Europe
Daniel Camacho	Europe
Jan Matiaska	Europe
Matúš Kočar	Europe
Harry Lightfoot	Europe
Drake Lewis	North America West
Anton Foss	North America West
Adam McAdams	North America West
Andris Sturans	North America West
Rafael Sancen	North America West
Anthonee Yim	North America West
Matthew Greene	North America West
Joel Laney	North America West
Dylan Pettit	North America East
Austin Hatfield	North America East
Alexander Majors	North America East
Johnie Charles	North America East

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