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Women’s Semifinals Power Ranking

April 29, 20239 min read

Image Credit - Athlete’s Eye

If you did not see our Men’s Power Rankings article, check it out! 

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.

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This is my third released version of the Women’s Power Rankings since the 2022 CrossFit Games, if you want to see the previous iterations from August and January: 

There were 15 ranked women in August who were removed in January. 

There were another 20 changes from January until now. 

The list below only includes athletes who are still competing as individuals in the 2023 CrossFit Games season. They have registered for Semifinals and can be found on the CrossFit Games leaderboards for their respective competitive region.

The Top 25

RankAthleteCompetitive RegionPreviousChangeWWR
1Mallory O’BrienNorth America East102
2Laura HorvathEurope201
3Annie ThorisdottirEurope3025
4Danielle BrandonNorth America East403
5Emma LawsonNorth America East5010
6Brooke WellsNorth America East716
7Gabriela MigalaEurope814
8Alexis RaptisNorth America East9111
9Amanda BarnhartNorth America East1127
10Arielle LoewenNorth America West1228
11Matilde GarnesEurope14321
12Emma CaryNorth America East15359
13Karin FreyováEurope16318
14Ellie TurnerOceania17324
15Emma McQuaidEurope1835
16Paige PowersNorth America East23730
17Jacqueline DahlstrømEurope2149
18Emily RolfeNorth America West22418
19Dani SpeegleNorth America West24516
20Alex GazanNorth America West26629
21Emma TallEurope28748
22Thuri HelgadottirEurope25312
23Sara SigmundsdottirEurope29650
24Jamie SimmondsOceania306109
25Katrin DavidsdottirNorth America West19-613

Key names removed from the upper portion of this list since January include Haley Adams, Kara Saunders, Kristi Eramo O’Connell, and Lucy Campbell. There are also a decent number of women in this range who it is quite honestly difficult to assess how good they actually are right now. Women like Emma Cary, Emma Tall, Paige Powers, Sara Sigmundsdottir, and Katrin Davidsdottir are athletes I have a close eye on for a variety of reasons. Some of the shifting up and down in these cases is due to very particular things which will be explored in more detail on audio/video platforms shortly. 

At a much earlier interval than for the men, we see an athlete in my top 25 power rankings who is outside the top 100 worldwide rankings. This means that Jamie Simmonds has no effect on the Strength of Field allocation of Games spots for Oceania this year. 

Spots 26-50

RankAthleteCompetitive RegionPreviousChangeWWR
26Paige SemenzaNorth America East31522
27Baylee RaylNorth America West32514
28Sydney MichalyshenNorth America West33517
29Freya MoosbruggerNorth America West34427
30Madeline SturtOceania35456
31Solveig SigurdardottirEurope36431
32Manon AngoneseEurope39691
33Christine KolenbranderNorth America West40623
34Elisa FulianoEurope41645
35Carolyne PrevostNorth America East38215
36Rebecca FuselierNorth America West42532
37Katelin Van ZylOceania51131510
38Anikha GreerNorth America East521360
39Shelby NealNorth America East43343
40Claudia GluckEurope44349
41Elena Carratala SanahujaEurope45335
42Fee SaghafiNorth America East46336
43Kloie WilsonNorth America West48528
44Kelly BakerNorth America West61171510
45Olivia KerstetterNorth America West494181
46Sydney WellsNorth America East50462
47Kelly ClarkNorth America West621537
48Laura CliftonOceania54641
49Bethany ShadburneNorth America West27-2271
50Oihana MoyaEurope53338

Notable high rankings for Katelin Van Zyl and Kelly Baker, who have not competed as individuals in recent history but have had excellent seasons thus far are great examples of why there needs to be a new system to identify where the strength of the competitive field is. If you did not catch it in the men’s article, we will have an article later this week which provides a potential solution which accounts for athletes like Van Zyl and Baker when assessing strength of field. 

Spots 51-75

RankAthleteCompetitive RegionPreviousChangeWWR
51Tayla HoweEurope56540
52Emily De RooyOceania586147
53Evie HollisEurope59639
54Marie RobinEurope55161
55Aimee CringleEurope731885
56Madeline ShellingOceania571218
57Andrea SolbergEurope721594
58Jordan SzewcNorth America East65796
59Callista LangNorth America East66751
60Seher KayaAsia67763
61Victoria CamposSouth America68726
62Gemma HauckOceania697136
63Hattie KanyoNorth America West70770
64Dana ParanNorth America East7410196
65Alison ScuddsNorth America West751044
66Luiza MarquesSouth America7610119
67Julia KatoSouth America831652
68Sasha NievasSouth America8416150
69Aoife BurkeEurope77896
70Ella WungerEurope78867
71Lindsey PorterNorth America East80947
72Meredith SwindleNorth America West81968
73Lauren FisherNorth America West8815619
74Camilla Salomonsson HellmanEuropeUnrankedN/A2539
75Linda KeesmanEurope891481

Sweden’s Salomonsson Hellman is the first previously unranked athlete on our updated rankings. She is a three-time individual Games athlete out of Europe who had taken time away to have a child and is now back in the fray. The women’s field in Europe is going to be extremely competitive, but certainly having someone like that in the mix is notable, especially when distributing Games spots. Remember that in the current system, according to the man who created it, one extra spot in the top 100 could swing the math and earn an extra spot. With so much potentially riding on one spot like that, it seems like a miss to not have any way to account for someone like her. 

In general, this is the section of the list with names you might not know too well yet, but you will likely get to know a few of them much more well throughout Semis, and in some cases even at the Games. 

Spots 76-100

RankAthleteCompetitive RegionPreviousChangeWWR
76Tori DysonNorth America East8592681
77Noortje BleekerEurope9013103
78Ashleigh WosnyNorth America East94161538
79Caroline StanleyNorth America East951642
80Madison McelhaneyNorth America West961655
81Grace WaltonOceania10019184
82Briony ChallisOceaniaUnrankedN/A1486
83Roran ScottNorth America EastUnrankedN/A126
84Emily WhiteNorth America WestUnrankedN/A53
85Molly McGrandyNorth America EastUnrankedN/A83
86Nicole HeerEuropeUnrankedN/A65
87Lucy McGonigleEuropeUnrankedN/A2708
88Jessica KalagianNorth America EastUnrankedN/A168
89Zoe WarrenNorth America WestUnrankedN/A187
90Makenna EnslinNorth America EastUnrankedN/A223
91Allison WeissNorth America WestUnrankedN/A1773
92Ellia MillerNorth America WestUnrankedN/A131
93Trista SmithNorth America WestUnrankedN/A196
94Gabrielle SpenstNorth America WestUnrankedN/A117
95Martyna KrysiakEuropeUnrankedN/A73
96Sanna VenäläinenEuropeUnrankedN/A74
97Dawon JungAsiaUnrankedN/A93
98Abigail DomitNorth America WestUnrankedN/A105
99Marisa FlowersNorth America WestUnrankedN/A101
100Nicole Gibson-BurkeNorth America EastUnrankedN/A72

Almost everyone on this last quarter of the list is bumped in due to athletes dropping off who are either injured or competing on a team this year. There is some really young talent here though, and also a few women who will make a splash at their Semifinal, if not on the overall leaderboard, in specific events they are world class at. 

Dawon Jung is a good bet to make the Games in Asia, outside of her you might get one other Games athlete from this group of 25. 

The Next 25 

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

AthleteCompetitive Region
Kamila TakeyevaAsia
Shahad BudebsAsia
Amanda FusumaSouth America
Andreia PinheiroSouth America
Christina LivaditakisAfrica
Michelle BasnettAfrica
Gemma RaderAfrica
Leah StørenEurope
Julie VernetEurope
Vanessa WagnerEurope
Metty GreneronEurope
Erica FoloNorth America East
Lexi NeelyNorth America East
Samantha PughNorth America East
Ashley JerueNorth America East
Alaina SavageNorth America East
Katelynn SandersNorth America East
Lydia FishNorth America East
Jordan MalmNorth America East
Adison BalderstonNorth America West
Emily MuirNorth America West
Madie EdwardsNorth America West
Karisa StappNorth America West
Chelsea NicholasNorth America West

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Brian Friend

Brian stumbled upon CrossFit in the Fall of 2013. He has been a writer, data analyst, content creator, commentator, and broadcast coordinator. He's worked at a majority of the largest CrossFit competitions over the last three seasons, is a regular guest on the Sevan Podcast, and has been amongst the leading sports analysts in the sport in recent years. He has a passion for advancing the sport of CrossFit, and spreading the CrossFit methodology, by living it out in both his personal and professional life.

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