TYR WZA Elite Team Preview Article

As always the field for TYR Wodapalooza is flooded with talent from all around the world, from the community divisions, all the way to the elite, groups of friends and training partners converge, this year, for the first time ever, on Miami Beach, for the biggest fitness festival of the year. Our focus today is on the elite teams in the men’s and women’s divisions. 

Elite Men, Teams of 3

On paper, it’s a very top heavy field for the men. Team PJs checks in a full 8 points on the Apollo Rating scale ahead of the next closest teams. There are then 6 teams who all come in within 5 points of each other, and then there’s another big drop of 9 points to the 8th ranked team: 

Rank	Men Team	Rating
1	PJ’s	97.60
2	Mayhem Tres Leches	89.38
3	The Boys	88.62
4	Team GoWOD	87.93
5	Team SmartWOD	87.88
6	Training Culture	85.09
7	Sculpted Scholars	84.13
8	Tonka X Comradery	75.81

*Note: These are Apollo’s Rankings, not ours (see the B.Friendly Instagram post for those).

However, there are a few teams who won’t score highly on this system since it doesn’t account for team competitions, and seeing as this is a team competition, the predictions here will do its best to account for that.

The Favorites:

PJs: Pat Vellner, Jeff Adler, Jayson Hopper

On paper this is by far the best team, but that doesn’t always guarantee a win. The fact that despite how good they all are individually, they made it a point to get together last weekend to train together in Montreal, is a testament to the fact that they are not coming here for second place. The biggest knock against them relative to what is likely their biggest threat is that Vellner is competing in the individual division the two days prior. However, Vellner and Fikowski competed individually in 2023 before going on to win on a team with Adler over the weekend, so it may not be an issue for athletes of this caliber. 

GoWOD: Justin Medeiros, Dallin Pepper, Willy Georges

Although the overall caliber of athlete isn’t as strong as team PJs (which has 3 of the top 4 active rated men globally on its team), Medeiros and Georges come in as defending champions of the men’s elite team of 3 division from 2024, and Pepper is the other man in the active top 4 rating system. Team GoWOD took second two years ago as well; the only remaining member from that team is Georges. Despite the fact that the Frenchman doesn’t compete individually anymore, in terms of this particular competition, he has the best resume of anyone (alongside Jay Crouch who isn’t competing this year) over the last two TYR WZA elite male competitions. 

Podium Threats:

The Boys: Noah Ohlsen, Travis Mayer, Chandler Smith

The Boys are back! In 2023, the aforementioned two teams (Vellner, Adler, Fikowski and GoWOD) shared the podium with this exact trio. Last year Ohlsen and Smith brought in Tola Morakinyo and took third for the second year in a row. It seems possible, if not probable, that they could claim the third spot on the podium for a third year running. Mayer was a late withdraw from the individual competition, telling me these “boys” are laser focused on another podium in Miami.

Mayhem Tres Leches: Saxon Panchik, Jorge Fernandez, Gui Malheiros

Similarly to the Boys, Saxon and Jorge were on a team that podiumed last year, placing second and middling GoWOD and Ohlsen’s team. They bring in Gui Malheiros to replace Roman Khrennikov (who was coming off back-to-back second places in this division himself). All this to say, don’t count this team out- but Gui has some big shoes to fill if they want to repeat that second place performance. He showed up at SoCal for his team in a big way, he may just be ready to do it again. 

Team SmartWoD: Luka Dukic, Harry Lightfoot, Moritz Fiebig

Lightfoot made his TYR WZA debut last year in the team (33rd) division after competing as an individual the previous two years. Luka and Moritz are both rookies this year, and all three men are slated to pull the double- individual Thursday/Friday, team Saturday/Sunday. They also all overcame the stacked European Semifinal to earn a top-ten spot at Semis, and a qualifying spot to the Games. Moritz and Luka both won their most recent off-season competition (Belgrade Games and Dubai Fitness Championship respectively). As individuals they all have great credentials, and from what we’ve seen in the teams of three divisions at WZA over the last few years, that usually produces pretty good results.

Don’t Sleep On Them: 

Training Culture: Michal Wesolowski, Peter Ellis, Calum Clements

A sneaky team of one time individual CrossFit Games athletes, Wesolowski (36th) made it in 2023, while Ellis (31st) and Clements (20th) qualified as rookies in 2024. Wesolowski and Clements also had respectable finishes in Dubai taking 4th and 8th respectively. Wesolowski competed on a team in 2022 at Wodapalooza and placed 16th, Clements was on the Training Culture team last year that took 19th. The well-roundedness of this team seems to be better than either of those however, so keep an eye out for them to sneak into that top heat come Sunday.

Norwegian Kriger Boys: Andreas Timenes, Andreas Opsahl, Benyamine Boujar

If you’re from the United States you might be looking at these names and scratching your heads; but these men are fit, and very well versed in team competition. They are a product of one of the most well-established, well-coached and well credentialed team training camps in the world, Kriger Training out of Norway. Timenes and Boujar are both young and improving rapidly, their team placed 4th at Semis and 7th at the Games. Opsahl is the more experienced of the three, his team took 3rd at semis this year and 20th at the Games. In a format which allows for a lot of individual expression it will be interesting to see how they do, but for the workouts which demand grunt work, power output, worm work, and synchronization, these guys can probably keep up with most teams in the field.

Team Sweden: Alexander Elebro, Philip Lundqvist, Victor Ljungdal

A true team of rookies to the Wodapalooza stages that is traveling in from Sweden, but that doesn’t mean you should be discounting them. Elebro is the likely leader here with CrossFit Games team experience dating back to 2015. He’s been to six total Games on a team, has never finished worse than 16th with those teams, including 4 top-tens. His teams have also placed 6th or better at European Semifinals the last three years, and earned the win in France last season. Lundqvist and Ljungdal are more traditionally individual athletes, both of whom have European Semifinal credentials to their name. I’ve personally seen Elebro and Ljungdal compete (and win in their respective divisions) recently at the Oslo Throwdown, both men looked extremely sharp. 

Full Rankings on B.Friendly Instagram

Elite Women, Teams of 3 

In general, there is a lot more depth on the women’s side of things. Rather than seeing big drops and huge separations as we saw on the men’s side, there are 11 teams within 15 spots on the women’s side of Apollo’s rankings: 

Rank	Women Team	Rating
1	Relyte Salt Baes	94.69
2	YETI Outkasts	93.76
3	Broadway Girls	91.67
4	Froggy Girls Who Don’t Run	90.99
5	Reebok Crew	90.03
6	Tres Leches	85.86
7	Swedish House Mafia	84.10
8	Capra Collective -Switzerland	83.30
9	Team XND	81.22
10	The Dottirs	79.83
11	Fossils in Motion	79.80

*Note: These are Apollo’s Rankings, not ours (see below for or on Instagram for those).

The Favorites:

Relyte Salt Baes: Abigail Domit, Arielle Loewen, Emily Rolfe

Actually not a ton of TYR WZA team experience on this team (Loewen placed third in 2023, Raptis was on a team that took fifth that same year). Rolfe will be debuting in the team division, but is a mainstay in the individual field having competed there the last four competitions, and strangely enough taking 9th or 10th every time. Loewen has two indy WZA results under her belt, 3rd in 2022, 4th in 2024. All three of them are pulling the double duty this year though, but they most likely have the fitness to keep up regardless.

YETI Outkasts: Emma Lawson, Shelby Neal, Danielle Brandon

A relatively inexperienced group of WZA athletes (Neal had one teams of three appearance in 2022 when she took 9th, Danielle took third as an individual last year), with plenty of experience elsewhere, checks in right towards the top here. None of them are competing individually, though you can see Emma Lawson take on Alex Gazan in Reps Ahead on Thursday night, which could give them a slight edge for the push that is needed to separate at times against a fairly tight field of competitive teams. I think some people will fade on this team because of Shelby Neal, and I would say that it probably a mistake; she’s better than most give her credit for.

Swedish House Mafia: Emma Tall, Lena Richter, Emelie Lundberg

The only returning champion from last year is on this team, and it’s Emelie Lundberg. However, she isn’t the only past WZA team of three champion on this team as Lena Richter won it in 2022. Emma Tall is clearly the most well credentialed individual athlete on this roster, and when you put those three bullet points together, you have a team who will be threatening for the win in this division again. 

Podium Threats:

Broadway Girls: Haley Adams, Brooke Wells, Sydney Wells

I’m sure there are many who see this and think they should be in the group above, and they very well could end up there. Drawing lines in this division this year is hard, and that’s what is going to make it so fun! Both Brooke and Haley have done the female teams of three before. Haley took second in 2022, Wells took fourth in 2023 and sixth last year. This will be Sydney’s first WZA team of three experience. Not only is this team comprised of three very fit women, it’s three women who have a lot of fun together, and that’s a dangerous combo. Even though there are three teams listed above, this team is absolutely in the conversation to nag a podium spot Sunday night.

Girls Who Don’t Run: Kyra Milligan, Olivia Kerstetter, Dani Speegle

I scrolled through the elite team programming over and over to make sure, and yes, it is confirmed, no running! Actually, the programming for the team division could hardly be better for this team. A lot of weight lifting, grunt work, worms, and the gymnastic components just happen to be some of the things they are best at…this team is absolutely dangerous in this competition this year!

Team PROPOD: Camilla Salomonsson Hellman, Maria Langfors, Antonia Falt-Kottulinksy

Similarly to the Wells’ and Adams team, this team could easily be in the group ahead… I mean this exact group took second place last year. I put them here to emphasize that the field in general this year is both stronger and deeper. It absolutely does not mean they can’t make the podium again, but it will be harder to do so. 

Don’t Sleep On Them: 

The Dottirs: Annie Thorisdottir, Katrin Davidsdottir, Sara Sigmundsdottir

The career accolades speak for themselves, and what an awesome team we have here. The trio of the beloved Dottirs of Iceland have never all competed together before. Annie and Katrin have. Katrin and Sara have. And finally (after Katrin’s retirement nonetheless), we get one of the most long sought after dream teams any fan of this sport could ever hope for. I have no idea, honestly, how well they can do. I think they’ll be in the final heat throughout, probably they can’t win, but who really knows!? This is just cool. 

Team Kriger: Oda Lundekvam, Ragnhild Seim, Vaar Thurman-Moe

We mentioned it in the men’s section, and it’s relevant again on the women’s side; Team Kriger is sending three very talented and fit women into the fray this year, and though they aren’t household names in North America for now, these ladies are good. Oda and Vaar laced it up as individuals in Dubai last month, taking 7th and 17th respectively. Raghhild was on the team two of the men were on that took 4th at Semis in Europe and 7th at the Games. Similarly to Speegle’s team, this team is good with odd objects, power output, weightlifting, and worms; they should do quite well. 

British Frogs: Lucy Campbell, Jennifer Muir, Tayla Howe

I’m a bit hesitant to say it because I don’t know for sure, but this may be the best collection of three women to compete together out of the UK we’ve ever seen. Campbell and Muir are also doing the individual competition the two days prior. All three of these women typically compete individually and have been quite successful doing so, but there’s nothing to suggest they wont have some strong performances together either.