A top heavy mens field, and the deepest talent pool of elite women’s field post-Covid have been announced and are ready to tackle year one of TYR WZA in a brand new location, Miami Beach!
Competition Format
As has become the norm these last few years at TYR WZA, the elite athlete schedule gives them the opportunity to compete as both an individual and on a same sex team of three, should they so desire. Once again the individual competition will precede the team competition:
- Elite Individuals will compete Thursday and Friday
- Elite Teams will compete Saturday and Sunday
Trends and Competitive Overview
Stats referenced here and below are courtesy of the newly branded Apollo Performance Analytics, created and maintained by Barclay Dale.
As a baseline to observe the general strength of field Apollo pulled the strength of field ratings for the individual fields of men and women from 2022, 2023, 2024, and this year.
| Men | Full Field | Omitting 0′s | Women | Full Field | Omitting 0’s |
| 2022 | 80.7 | 85.3 | 2022 | 73.3 | 79.4 |
| 2023 | 81.1 | 83.3 | 2023 | 75.6 | 79.8 |
| 2024 | 81.8 | 83.9 | 2024 | 82.3 | 82.3 |
| 2025 | 81.2 | 83.2 | 2025 | 83.0 | 84.9 |
In most cases there was at least one athlete in the field with a rating of “0”, meaning they haven’t competed in, or done well enough in, any relevant competitions in the past two years prior to qualifying for Wodapalooza. Full field includes those zeros, omitting 0’s is the average ranking without them.
Either way, we see relative consistency on the men’s side hovering around an average strength of field of 81 or 83 and a noticeable upward trend on the women’s side culminating in what is indeed the highest average ranking this year.
Male Favorites
- Ricky Garard comes in as the two time defending TYR WZA champion.
- Patrick Vellner won the three Wodapalooza’s before that (2019, 2020, 2022).
- Jeff Adler has won the CrossFit Games and the Rogue Invitational each of the last times he attempted (2023 Games, 2024 Rogue). He hasn’t competed as an individual at WZA since 2019. He was 19th then, but we all know how much he’s evolved as an athlete in the last five years.
Picking between them is tough:
- Vellner outperformed Garard at the Games, but Garard got injured.
- Garard outperformed Vellner at Rogue, but Vellner was sick.
- Vellner beat Adler at Rogue 2023, and they haven’t had a proper competition against each other since.
- Adler appeared to dominate both at Rogue this year, but apart from a horizontal peg board and heavy back squat there was actually very little between Adler and Garard… and there’s little to no precedent for either of those things popping up in a critical way at Wodapalooza this year.
Let’s look at just how close it was between Adler and Garard at Rogue on the other 8 events:
| Rogue, minus events 3 and 8 | Jeff Adler | Ricky Garard |
| E1 – Quick Sand | 2 (18:43.65) | 1 (18:43.48/8:12) |
| E2 – NorthSea Tiger | 5 (5:08.46/2:28) | 6 (5:15.23/2:18) |
| E4 – HuntingHaggis | 3 (15:32.52/9:36.09) | 1 (15:20.49/9:07.70) |
| E5 – Devil’s Tail | 2 (6:41.69) | 3 (6:45.47) |
| E6 – The Duel IV | 9 (3/37.94) | 8 (3/37.89) |
| E8 – Tight Rope | 8 (9:16.29/2:36.56) | 10 (9:56.58/2:46.28) |
| E9 – The Excavator | 4 (3:27.99/2:25.77) | 6 (3:41.58/2:23) |
| Total Points | 570 | 560 |
Taking out those two somewhat unique implements to Rogue Invitational programming the race between these two was as close as can be. Not only would ten points have ended up separating them from each other by the end of the competition, but in every single remaining event they finished within two spots of each other.
In a time period in which it isn’t exactly clear who the fittest athletes on earth necessarily are, a win for either of these guys against the other will be a big statement.
Men’s Challengers
There are a host of other viable podium threats in the field, and for all of these men claiming one of the podium spots would be a nice accomplishment this year:
James Sprague: The current Games champion, like Vellner, was competing depleted at Rogue this year. He had a decent showing at TYR WZA last year finishing 7th, and it seems like he has a great chance to improve on that finish this year.
Jonne Koski: A bit of a wildcard considering his career pedigree. After missing the Games this year at the European semifinal, he actually had a very respectable 10th place finish at Rogue. This is his first year competing as an individual in Miami, so it’s a bit murky about how well he’ll do here- not having a swim at a competition which traditionally does definitely hurts, but his skill set certainly doesn’t end with swimming and WZA programming historically actually looks pretty good on Koski
Luka Dukic: Coming off a tremendously emotional and equally impressive showing in Dubai, Luka, lille Jonne will be making his debut at Wodapalooza this year. Physically he looked as fit as we’ve ever seen him in Dubai, if he carries that fitness and momentum into Miami he is certainly a threat to upset the predictable podium finishers.
Moritz Fiebig: Fiebig looked as good as Dukic did in Dubai at the Belgrade Games a month before. He was then prevented from being able to showcase that on the bigger stage in Dubai due to food poisoning. Like the other two Europeans on this list, this is his first dip into the individual pool at WZA. He made the podium in Europe two years ago, and looks to be in the type of form he was when he did that now.
Sleeper to Watch:
George Sterner: Second place at the 2016 teenage CrossFit Games; 32nd at the 2019 CrossFit Games (one place ahead of Jeff Adler). And we have not seen Sterner since then. In 2018 I predicted that he would be the next athlete to win the Games after Fraser, clearly that didn’t happen, but his potential is still there. He’s going to be in a field full of extremely fit and experienced men for the first time in five years- your guess is as good as mine about how well he can realistically do.
| Brian’s Elite Individual Men’s Picks: TYR WZA 2025 | |||
| 1 | Ricky Garard | 21 | Travon Benton |
| 2 | Jeffrey Adler | 22 | Kaique Cerveny |
| 3 | Patrick Vellner | 23 | Nick Mathew |
| 4 | James Sprague | 24 | Will Bennett |
| 5 | Luka Đukić | 25 | Tom Kingdon |
| 6 | Moritz Fiebig | 26 | George Sterner |
| 7 | Luke Parker | 27 | Lago Guiraldes |
| 8 | Austin Hatfield | 28 | Joshua Hong |
| 9 | Travis Mayer | 29 | Tanner Balazs |
| 10 | Jonne Koski | 30 | Miko Lilleorg |
| 11 | Harry Lightfoot | 31 | Joshua Gervais |
| 12 | Guilherme Malheiros | 32 | Ruan Potgieter |
| 13 | Aniol Ekai | 33 | Samuel Paquin |
| 14 | Alexandre Caron | 34 | Pedro Martins |
| 15 | Saxon Panchik | 35 | Brandon Schipper |
| 16 | Alex Kotoulas | 36 | Connor Voltz |
| 17 | John Wood | 37 | Diogo Freitas |
| 18 | Enrico Zenoni | 38 | Federico Marra |
| 19 | Maximilian Krieg | 39 | Marcus Moreira |
| 20 | Jack Farlow | 40 | Nicolás Bedon |
Women’s Favorites
Although the overall field of women is deeper this year, none of the podium finishers from last season are in this field.
- Arielle Loewen is the highest returning finisher placing fourth last year, she also has a third place finish to her credit from WZA 2022.
- Laura Horvath has never competed at WZA as an individual before, though she did win the elite female teams of three competition in 2023 with Gabi Migal and Jamie Simmonds. If she were to win this weekend she would achieve the first ever career “off-season triple crown” by becoming the only athlete, male or female, to win Dubai, Rogue, and WZA in her career (five others have won at least two).
While there are a bunch of other talented women in the field, it really feels like this is a two horse race for the top podium spot.
Other Podium Contenders
Alexis Raptis: The only elite appearance at WZA for Raptis came on a team in 2023, she placed fifth that year with Fee Saghafi and Christin Kolenbrander. Most of Raptis’ most career success has come in the CrossFit Games season. The only notable offseason competition result she has is placing 8th at the 2022 Rogue Invitational, she has a chance to add an impressive finish this year in Miami.
Brooke Wells: Brooke is the only past champion on the women’s side in the field this year; she won it in 2016, and took second in 2016. Since then she’s only competed individually once, taking 6th in 2020. She had her best competition finish since the elbow injury at Rogue a couple months ago taking 5th, it’s difficult to say what the ceiling is for Brooke here, but certainly podium feels within reach.
Emma Tall: In two previous individual appearances Tall has been 7th (2022) and 5th (2023). She’s coming off a season in which she had a great Semifinal performance proving once again that when healthy she’s one of the best in Europe, at the very least.
Elisa Fuliano: Fuliano competed individually at WZA in 2023 and placed 7th. She’s had decent offseason and has some specific skills which could transfer well to the typical WZA programming slate. In 2023 she finished in the top 5 on over half of the events, so look for her to have several good performances again.
Dani Speegle: Speegle has three top five finishes in her WZA career, and is generally good for one event win per year there (she won one each in 2019, 2022, and 2023). She had a big regression last year finishing 19th, but the programming was heavily influenced by weather and may be at least in part responsible for that big of a drop from her usually impressive performances in Miami.
Sleeper to Watch:
Lucy Campbell: In her only competition since returning from all the complications with the wrist, Campbell won the Marbella Championship earlier this offseason. Prior to taking 16th at the Games in 2022 she took 4th at Wodapalooza, so she has some good memories here. Will be fun to see her back on a big stage, and intriguing to see how well she can do.
| Brian’s Elite Individual Women’s Picks: TYR WZA 2025 | |||
| 1 | Laura Horvath | 23 | Aline Wirz |
| 2 | Arielle Loewen | 24 | Zoe Warren |
| 3 | Alexis Raptis | 25 | Lexi Neely |
| 4 | Brooke Wells | 26 | Emelie Lundberg |
| 5 | Emma Tall | 27 | Chloe Gauvin-David |
| 6 | Dani Speegle | 28 | Nicole Heer |
| 7 | Elisa Fuliano | 29 | Elizabeth Wishart |
| 8 | Abigail Domit | 30 | Georgia Pryer |
| 9 | Emily Rolfe | 31 | Jennifer Muir |
| 10 | Aimee Cringle | 32 | Victoria Campos |
| 11 | Sydney Wells | 33 | Reese Littlewood |
| 12 | Linda Keesman | 34 | Mary Helen Saunders |
| 13 | Anikha Greer | 35 | Jessica Androsik |
| 14 | Hattie Kanyo | 36 | Nina Vragovic |
| 15 | Kyra Milligan | 37 | Andreia Pinheiro |
| 16 | Lydia Fish | 38 | Arielle Sanders |
| 17 | Andra Moistus | 39 | Astrid Tind Petersen |
| 18 | Claudia Gluck | 40 | Maria Camila Quintero |
| 19 | Seher Kaya | 41 | Pernille Amalie Kristensen |
| 20 | Erica Folo | 42 | Ashley Cope |
| 21 | Lucy Campbell | 43 | Lily Burkhead |
| 22 | Lucy McGonigle | 44 | Caitlin Bernardin |
| 45 | Nicolette Torreggiani | ||
What do you think?
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