It all came down to .19 seconds and what an incredible finish it was! Only six points separated the Top 2 Australian women going into the final event, but it was Tia-Clair Toomey that landed at top of the podium. Two points behind her was Kara Webb and the final event of the 2017 Reebok CrossFit Games might have been the most wild finish in Games history.

As if it wasn’t impressive enough that Toomey was the first athlete to compete in both the CrossFit Games and The Olympics in the same year, she decided to one up herself. Throughout the entire weekend, Toomey was hard to miss as she wore the white and red leader’s jersey for a good majority of it. In fact, she never found herself outside of the top 2. In the final event, she needed to do one thing to comfortably win the most coveted title in CrossFit: beat Kara Webb.

photo: CrossFit Games

Toomey had one step left in her overhead walking lunge, Webb hot on her heels, and she failed to lockout resulting in a no rep. This opened the door for Webb to get to the finish line a split second before her. Now, it really was any woman’s game. The math had to be calculated to determine the winner and after what probably felt like the longest minutes of her life, it was Tia-Clair Toomey who was crowned The Fittest on Earth, replacing two-time defending champion, Katrin Davidsdottir. For the first time in CrossFit Games history, Australia earned it’s first CrossFit Games title.

Then there was Kara Webb. The five time CrossFit Games athlete had never stepped foot onto the podium, but this year that all changed. It was a hard earned fight for Webb who needed seven consecutive top 10 finishes going into Event 7. She used the momentum for her win, which was originally given to Alessandra Pichelli until an error was discovered, in the 1RM Snatch event to do just that including her second event win right after that. Webb didn’t plan to leave Madison without a medal around her neck. It was a showdown through the final event and we couldn’t have written her story any better.

photo: CrossFit Games

On the final step of the podium was a familiar name. One of the Dottir’s from Iceland who’s name we haven’t seen in the top three of the leaderboard since 2014. Australia may have replaced Iceland at the top, but Annie Thorisdottir wasn’t going to let her country go unnoticed. She had a legacy to uphold and she accepted the challenge. Thorisdottir earned herself a top five finish in all but four events, giving her the edge and the podium position over Sara Sigmundsdottir.

photo: CrossFit Games

By Katie Ferraro