This is not just based on personal thoughts, and not just because they are the favourites. Getting her nerd on is Vic from Hilltop CrossFit, a self confessed research nerd.
Looking at the previous CrossFit Games results in specific events, watching and listening to countless interviews, analysing CrossFit Regional results and applying it to what we know about the 2014 Games.
Who is going to win The 2014 CrossFit Games and why?
The Women
PODIUM:
- 1st Julie Foucher
- 2nd Valerie Voboril
- 3rd Nicole Holcomb
Darkhorses:
Watch out for Lauren Fisher, Emily Bridgers and our Aussies Denae Brown and Kara Webb.
You can’t go past Julie Foucher, after taking a year off for Medical School she is back! Unlike other athletes who have come back from injury, Annie T and last year Sam Briggs, she’s had the time to improve on where she was at in 2012 and work on her mental strength and improve her skills.
Foucher is strong on the endurance and running events, has a light body weight so I expect her to take out the Biathlon and the Triple3, place high on the Beach event and also the Midline March. In 2012 she won Pendleton 2 and the Track Triplet, not to mention she can hold her own in the strength events and in the more general CrossFit events. Foucher placed in the top 10 in the world for 5 out of 7 events at Regionals and has shown by previous results that she can take the pressure.
Although Camille Leblanc-Bazinet topped the world wide leaderboard based on Regional results, you can’t dismiss her failure to perform at the 2013 CrossFit Games where there were big expectations for her to succeed. Unless Leblanc-Bazinet has addressed her weaknesses, including her performance under pressure, I wouldn’t expect to see her in the top 10 at the end of the weekend.
Sadly this goes to Annie T too, I think the rest of the placings from 2-10 are up for grabs. The rookies Lauren Fisher, Nicole Holcomb and Denae Brown should be looking to take advantage of this, paired with the likes of Katrin Davidsdottir, Stacie Tovar, Sam Briggs, Lindsey Valenzuela and Rory Zambard not in this years field this is set to be one exciting competition.
The Men
PODIUM:
- 1st Rich Froning
- 2nd Scott Panchik
- 3rd Jason Khalipa
Darkhorses:
Watch out for Ben Smith, Will Moorad, Matt Fraser and Cole Sager to all by vying for the podium.
How can you argue with this? Rich Froning is someone who performs so well under pressure and is methodical in his attack and plays his own game. The only one who could potentially topple this apple cart would be Scott Panchik who was so close to Froning all weekend at Regionals.
For Froning not to win 4 in a row he’s going to have to have a severe failure in an event which is difficult to see happening as he’s been covering his bases and has upped the endurance and dropped body weight from 2013.
In the mix for the Men’s it would be remiss not to mention the ability of Jason Khalipa at the Games level and also Neil Maddox who could potentially take us all by surprise if recovery goes his way. Maddox openly admits that being an older competitor means he has to approach training and workloads differently and to make sure his recovery is the priority.
So what to expect, Froning to win but he’s going to be pushed and challenged by Panchik and Khalipa the whole way. Maddox will come out of the blocks firing early but the volume of work will add up and work against him.
You also cannot discount Ben Smith and the new blood coming into the sport, the rookies Will Moorad, Cole Sager and Matt Fraser. With Wes Piatt, Marcus Hendren, Chad Mackay, Roy Gamboa, Austin Mallealo, Garret Fisher, Matt Chan and Mikko Salo all out the CrossFit Games for 2014 there is certainly a lot of room to move for the rookies.
Have I got it right? Leave your comments.
