Downloaded from YTS.MX
-[reporter] Do you think anyone can beat Mat Fraser? -Yes.
Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX
[reporter] Do you think you could be the man to beat?
I mean, I think anybody can be beaten. Um--
I'm not gonna count myself out.
I see it all the time, of people saying just...
"I'm gonna beat you, I'm gonna..." Okay, okay, it's--
I'll be in Dubai.
[intense music]
[announcer] One event stands between four athletes.
And with one spread across the floor,
welcome back to the CrossFit Games!
[intense music]
Rumors.
[upbeat music]
Today, it's rumor mill time.
We're gonna be talking about some potentially huge changes
to the 2019 CrossFit Games season.
After the CrossFit Games in 2018,
there were rumors of changes coming.
No one quite understood what the changes were about
and how it would impact them.
There's gonna be a change.
What that change is, no one knew.
What's crazy is that we have a lot of details.
Just kind of a general idea.
And people had been going nuts.
What really changed between 2018 and today
is the method to qualify for the CrossFit Games.
[narrator] In the past a CrossFit Games season
was essentially three simple stages.
The first stage was the CrossFit Games Open.
From there the top athletes in each region
would qualify through regional stage
which was in a live competition around the world.
Top five men, women, and teams
would then qualify through the CrossFit Games.
Now it's much different.
[Mohammed] You have multiple options as an athlete to qualify
Whether it will be online qualify in the CrossFit Open,
you can qualify as a top 20 athlete,
or as a national champion.
You can also qualify through any of the sanctional events.
Sanctionals replaced Regionals
but also added more chances in more locations
for people to qualify for.
As an athlete you are no longer bound to your region.
You can compete and qualify to the Games
throughout any of these international sanctional events.
After that announcement
that there would be sanctioned events,
it was also announced that the very first sanctioned event
in CrossFit Games history was gonna be
The Dubai CrossFit Championship.
[Sara] I competed at the DCC 2016,
and it's by far my favorite competition.
It's sort of a well established competition already.
I think the last two years we had a lot of games athletes.
[Mohammed] Athletes enjoy coming to Dubai because of, obviously, the prize money.
But also because of the experience they have in Dubai.
Every time I've been here I had a blast.
The city itself, you're just looking around
and everything is a spectacle here. It's pretty wild.
I think this is not only big because of the money.
It's also big because of amount of big athletes that come.
So when you compete against such a high caliber roster.
And you come on top, that gives you bragging rights.
The competition got bigger and bigger.
In 2017 they had Dani, was third place at the Games.
They had Kara Webb, was second place at the Games.
Names are always getting bigger and bigger.
Unbelievable, they gonna come and test themselves
amongst the best in the world.
It's very similar to some of game stuff we have to do.
We can get outside, we can get to the mountains,
we can get to the snow, we can get to the ocean,
or we can be inside the gym.
It's almost like a mini Games.
I'll definitely compete in all the sanctional events.
I love coming here. Also, getting some sun in December
is always good.
[intense drum music]
[upbeat music]
It's the number of the game.
[reporter] Oh yeah?
Is that a good sign?
Yeah, it's a redemption.
[intense drum music]
The atmosphere on day one was actually really cool.
The setting for it was on a beach,
back dropped by Burj Al Arab,
which is arguably the nicest hotel
in one of the most photogenic spots in Dubai.
The first day at the Jumeirah Al Qasr Hotel
was very exciting.
It's a five star resort.
White sand, blue water.
[Jamie] I was happy 'cause I could lie in the sun
in between the events.
[chattering]
-It's a lot. -It's not like a pool.
-No. Not at all. -Not like on the picture.
It's pretty different than home. It's warmer.
At home it's like zero - minus five degrees,
it's like 27 here, so.
This is awesome, look at those waves.
It's pretty fun.
A little different than Iowa.
We swim in pool.
Yes, I see this first time.
I never see these waves. [laughs] It's crazy.
[reporter] Your first day swimming?
First day at least
swimming like outside my bathtub, I guess.
[reporter] Oh, damn.
Bathtubs count, but I don't know.
I'm pretty experienced, I figure it [indistinct] well.
Like time in the water, it's always different.
So I was taking progressively longer baths, kinda like an overload.
Like I start with 15 minutes, nice warm bubbles,
and then like move to progressively harder baths.
Like with less comfortable water and kinda just longer exposure.
So it got to a point where I can stay in the water for like 24 hours.
Since then I think I'm pretty prepared. I got enough time in the water.
Some of these guys swim like an hour a day or something.
I think just with amount of time I had in comparison to them I'll be a lot more successful.
-[reporter] You got 'em at 24 hours. -Exactly, so how can I fail?
Do 21 reps where the cut of those are.
[woman] A little early start for me.
I'm old now, I have to like sleep in till eight.
-If I'm used to waves? -[reporter] Yeah.
No, there is no ocean in Hungary whatsoever, so.
[reporter] Have you done any ocean swim?
Yeah, little bit.
But not in this kind. These are big waves, but I'll be okay.
[woman] We're wondering if there's animals in there.
-Jellyfish. -Sharks.
I just told some people if you hear the bells ringing,
it's to keep sharks away.
Yellow is the shark line.
So sharks stay on the other side.
Oh, you told the sharks: "Hey, guys, yellow."
I would see a shark, I would just hit him. [laughs]
There's no sharks here.
[laughing]
[man] I feel like this swimsuit is so badass.
You know, like a superhero costume, a little bit.
Maybe not! [laughs]
Intimidating the bad guys.
-Oh my God, Kristof. -Of course no bad guys here.
When the athletes started to see
we were anchoring buoys out in water
they started to realize the water was a lot more
difficult than we had expected.
[intense music]
[Carmen] It felt like I was in a surf event or something.
The setup was so cool, and the waves were massive.
[Sara] We had the beach for ourselves and I said:
"How cool is it to start a competition on a beach?"
[intense music]
[man] It's 2159.
Double kettlebell snatch.
Double kettlebell front squat.
Followed by a 350 meter swim.
[intense music]
First thought was to jack your heart rate up real high
with kettlebells, and then you gotta get in the water
with the high heart rate. We'll see who's ready for that.
[announcer] An athlete we saw pull out of competition
at the Games last year is back in competition.
Sara Sigmundsdottir will be in lane number six.
[announcer 2] I'm really shocked that he still has a shirt on.
Okay, there we go.
We haven't really been talking a lot about Sara lately.
We've been talking about Laura lately.
[Carmen] That first bit with kettlebells, just get through it
and then it was just try not to drown in the water. [laughs]
[Jamie] Not always the biggest waves in Dubai,
and they were pretty big that day.
I've never seen the ocean like that.
in these two years I been here until that day.
[Jamie] That changed the event a lot.
If you're comfortable swimming in flat water.
It's complete change.
[Streat] I've never seen waves that big.
We swam a lot leading up to DCC.
But never, not even half the size.
People were just getting destroyed by it.
[Diego] There was a point where I thought to myself:
"How do we track those ten people in the water?
Like how do we know someone didn't go under?"
[announcer] Sigmundsdottir has her feet on the ground.
[Sara] It's cool to use your fitness in something
that's just in the nature.
Like you mix fitness with kettlebells,
and then you have to be like pure nature,
and it's pretty cool.
[announcer] Foot race between Briggs and Green,
and depending on who gets to the mat first,
it looks like Briggs will take it!
[Sara] Did you see me on the way back there?
Like the three waves that crushed me.
I thought: "Stay cool." Then another one.
-It was so hard. -[man] Yeah?
It was so hard.
I've never swim in waves before.
-[laughs] Oh, really? -Yeah.
So this was the first time.
They told me not to get panicked, so I stayed calm.
-[man] It's the best thing, just relax in water. -Yeah.
-Well done. -Thank you.
Now I know I don't have any glasses for next event.
[man] Two back to back swimming events
is a cool wrench to throw at them.
And they're always worried about,
OK, we got the first one out of the way.
Okay, you just got your teeth kicked in
and now we're gonna do it again.
[Tommy] Initially, the athletes thought they just had to
go for a traditional swim in event number two,
once they're done with the runner.
But then at the last minute, they threw in a kind of a twist
where they would have to take what's commonly known as
a lifeguard buoy into the water with them.
They would have to keep it with them when they swim.
[Diego] Those buoys have a strap
and it was a game time decision to cut the strap.
[chuckling] Oh, that's going to be a learning curve
for a lot of people really quick.
We didn't know about that we're gonna have to carry it
until right before the event.
So nobody really knew like how to use it,
or like what's the best technique was gonna be.
[Jamie] Yeah, that was a lot more difficult than it looked. [laughs]
[Sara] I love the waves.
But not when I have a life buoy thing with me.
That took my soul away. [laughs]
Thought I was a good swimmer, until I had the buoy
I was like: "buoy will help me to be
even a better swimmer."
But then it just messed it up.
[Jamie] You'd almost think it's maybe easier,
'cause you've got something to like float with,
but that thing was very slippery,
so I think a few people lost it out there
and then had to come running to shore to get it.
I felt like I looked like David Hasselhoff there for a minute.
You know, just grabbing the buoy and taking off.
Then I looked like a wet noodle when I lost it at the end.
The wave just came over, crashed and the thing just took off.
[intense music]
[Tommy] It's one of those things when sometimes athletes are forced to adapt.
Some do that really well and some don't and the ones that don't,
you'll certainly gonna hear about it.
[announcer] And now it looks like a foot race
-between Mat Fraser and Streat Hoerner. -And my buoy just slipped.
-[announcer] And Hoerner will lose his buoy! -Like, aw, no!
Fraser will get across the finish line about 10:13.
-I swallowed so much water! -[woman laughs]
[funky music]
[Sara] I love the ocean and I love the sun,
in Iceland you don't get that much beach.
So I was very happy to start the day there.
I love the beach. Probably favorite place to be.
So it was a very good first day of competition.
It was probably one of the best first days
in a competition I've ever had.
[woman] That is a wrap of day one
of the Dubai CrossFit Championship 2018.
We've spent a gorgeous day here on the beach.
We're gonna be in the desert tomorrow,
and then in the tennis stadium for the final two days of competition.
Keep it here for all the details.
[funky music]
-[reporter] Sara, how's Fiona? -She's a princess now. She survived the run.
-[reporter] You came up with the nickname Fiona? -[Sam] Yeah.
[reporter] Fun fact.
Sara's toe is named by Sam Briggs.
[Sam] Princess Fiona, because she wants to be beautiful,
but she's just an ogre.
I accepted that my toe is very ugly.
So, we've told the athletes to consider getting gaiters for their shoes.
Lot of people didn't know what the gaiters were, so I think they looked it up.
They bought gaiters, and came to Dubai.
And I think that's the first time they opened the gaiters.
They didn't realize that you have to get them sewn to your shoes
for them to really, really work.
-Gaiters. -[reporter] They go over what?
They go over your shoe.
I just don't know which way.
Aw, it doesn't go on my big fat shoe.
[Tommy] So day one you had two water events,
back to back, on the beach.
And now things are about to take a complete 180.
When you move on to day number two,
you go out to the desert for a long run.
[Mat] Four kilometers out, four kilometers back.
They're good runners.
Behind that, it's whoever
is the fittest will do well.
[announcer] The first 4K will be done with a tactical vest on.
20 pounds for the men, 15 pounds for the women.
[man] Three, two, one, go!
[intense music]
[Sara] I just heard so many bad things
about how hard it is to run in the desert.
Running with a weighted vest for me
is hard before and being in sand is even harder.
[Streat] Well, I knew from last year
we had to do a desert run.
And it was one of the worst things I'd ever done.
So yeah, I knew it was going to be really hard.
[Tommy] The thing about this is this is an event
you wouldn't traditionally see basically anywhere else.
Most events don't have access to a massive desert,
or a beach long enough to do something similar to this,
so it's an event where sure, athletes are used to running,
but the slight nuance and difference
were you have to run in a soft sand
is really a test that they're not used to.
[announcer] Mikaela Norman has come to the halfway point
verse with Sam Briggs
about 10 seconds behind her.
[Jamie] A lot of people wore gaiters over the shoes
to keep the sand out, that worked.
A lot of people didn't.
So I think a lot of them ended up
having to take their shoes off,
and just run barefoot in the sand.
I actually was thinking about taking mine off
'cause I had so much sand.
They just filled.
Like the front of my toes were just thick with sand.
[announcer] You can just see the elevation changes
along the run course.
[Diego] All false summits, right?
Because you get to the top of a dune,
and you think that's the top of the dune,
and then it just goes further out and up again.
And that's pretty heartbreaking.
[announcer] Mikaela Norman will take
Women's Event number three.
Brendan Willis has opened up a substantial lead
between him and second place, Roman Khrennikov.
And one thing we know is that Mat Fraser
does have some wheels on him.
Trying to sneak up on Bjorgvin Karl Gudmundsson,
but it looks like too little, too late.
[serene music]
[announcer] It was the battle of the elements out here in the desert.
A lot of things making it tougher for the athletes
than a normal 8K run.
I'm just so glad it's over. [laughs]
It feels like never ending.
Up and down.
You can't really like imagine how it is to run.
You have to run to know it.
I ditched my shoes about 800 meters in.
It was much better without shoes.
Way better without shoes.
Freaking Fred Flintstone over here.
[Mat] That was much more difficult than I was expecting.
So soft.
You want to run where there haven't been footprints,
so there's like that crust on top.
Even that.
Like out of every ten steps, you maybe get one firm one.
-Not so great. -[reporter] Not so good?
My back blew up.
I don't know, I bogged more than ran.
Is that where Sour Patch Kids come from?
You know what I mean?
Like what is that?
[intense music]
[upbeat music]
[Tommy] So things will shift now as we go into event four,
and we move into the tennis stadium.
A few big names on the women's side
had questions about some potential injuries
coming into the weekend.
Laura Horvath, unbeknownst to a lot of people
had been dealing with a back injury.
And it kinda bothered her leading up to the competition.
[reporter] Do you feel more pressure
because of what happened at the Games last year?
I don't know, probably. I mean, I try not to think about it,
but everyone's talking about it,
so it's kind of hard to like not think about it.
Everybody's like: "She finished second,
she should not made it here."
I mean, it is what it is.
It's December, so I'm trying to qualify for the Games,
which is in August, so I'll be fine.
[Sara] I broke my rib November, 2017.
I had it broken from the Games,
and I knew that it was broken in November.
My mindset at that time was just I'm back at the beginning.
It's so hard to have been here,
and like almost winning the Games into like,
will I qualify for Regionals?
And then first day at the Games, I break my rib again.
And it's like... I said it to my coach the week before,
the worst thing that can happen is that I break my rib. And we were joking about it,
because we knew it wouldn't happen, and then it happened.
And I competed at World's after that in November.
I had only been training for about
two weeks before World's
in Olympic weightlifting, so after November
I had four weeks to train more,
and I was just excited to see
what I could do in a competition.
[man] I think women's side is gonna be interesting.
'cause everyone sitting at the top
does not have real big number,
and the first thing we do is snatch, heavy.
So, Samantha Briggs it's damage control.
Jamie Green, it's gonna be a kind of damage control.
Stronger girls will get the chance
to really jump back up the leaderboard
when we get into those more classic CrossFit style workouts.
We've seen Laura come out, not do very well,
and then smash in event, smash in event, smash in event.
And I think there's a lot that can be made up there.
She's never had pressure on her.
Now there's kind of the expectation,
and that's a lot of pressure.
[man 1] Jamie Green as far as on competitive steam,
and she won this event in 2015
when no one had really ever heard of her,
and then she came back next year and won the open.
[man 2] I think she's got an incredible shot.
Stunner, mate, that's what she is. She's a stunner.
I'm happy with how the last two days have gone.
Obviously, this is not going to be my strongest event,
but hopefully shouldn't do like too bad on the next two events,
and then it'll make it interesting on the final day. Everything to play for.
I mean I think it's a good start, after two days.
First workout, I wanted to do a little better.
Because a little too conservative on the first one,
but then the other workouts we've had,
I guess we've had two other ones,
I felt like I capitalized pretty well.
I'm pretty happy with where I'm sitting.
I mean, it's like seven points out of first.
There's still seven events to go,
so it's a lot left, but I like my chances right now.
[Chase] Travis Mayer, Willy Georges,
and Bjorgvin Karl Gudmundsson.
Those guys that can push Mat for the weekend.
This is the day where Mat reminds everybody
of who Mat Fraser is.
They're gonna have to be perfect to beat Mat.
[Diego] Everyone comes to the snatch event, everybody wants to watch it.
And it's just like going to, to a baseball game, it's like you want to see a home run.
Like you don't want to see singles and doubles or triples.
You go to see home runs, and that's what this snatch event is.
[upbeat music]
[announcer] It will be a one rep max snatch event,
but a little twist is that we've kind of seen all weekend
is that there's only five minutes allotted
for them to get that one rep max.
Everyone loves a lifting workout.
It's like a lot of hype behind it.
Very entertaining for the crowds.
[Sara] You use that adrenaline with everybody,
and it just gives you so much.
I have a number in my head that I want to hit,
so I surprised myself by hitting almost six kilos heavier
than I'm hitting in World's.
So I was very happy with that event.
[heavy music]
[announcer] 136 good for Jason Smith.
[Diego] Everyone wants to see a very heavy lift.
It doesn't matter if you do it at your gym.
Can you do it when people are watching?
Can you do it when it can cost the event?
[announcer 1] Mia Akerlund going for a PR attempt of 104 kilo.
-[announcer 2] Oh, wow! -[announcer 1] Mia Akerlund has set the snatch record
in live CrossFit competition!
[announcer 2] The bigger sharks are starting to come up
-and start swimming. -[announcer 2 laughs]
[Mat] I had 136 loaded, and I knew that was the top weight,
so I knew it would get me a 100 points.
But it would also give the other two guys
who hit 136 a 100 points.
So I wanted to throw on one extra kilo.
[announcer 1] 40 seconds to go.
-[announcer 2] Oh, wow! -[announcer 1] But that's good for Mat Fraser!
[crowd cheering]
[announcer 1] So 137 for Mat Fraser
and a much needed confidence boost for Laura Horvath.
[announcer 2] Make no doubt about it. She needed that place finishing.
[Laura] I just beat our max snatch.
I got 93 kilos. I'm pretty happy.
[Mat] I had 136 loaded and then I was like,
nah, I was like, Jason's good,
I need to take points away from him.
Shit, man. Well done, dude.
The thing about Mat beating you is like you can't be mad at it.
Do you know what I'm saying?
If you get beat by him, well, he beat you
and you're like yeah, well, okay.
What you gonna do? Try again.
Yeah, it's the first time I go over like 85 since...
-Since 1960... -[laughing]
Yeah, it's also as like why didn't I put more on?
Yeah, and a little bit like on to the side.
Yeah, it's very weird.
I've never felt anything like that before.
Reach down, touch your toes as fast as you can.
How's that one feel?
-Yeah, it hurts. -That's good?
Get you on your back, face up.
I don't know, my back hurts so... I mean, I don't know.
Like yeah, from yesterday.
I just-- I can't bend over, it hurts so much.
I don't know how I snatched...
-[man] You got hurt now? -Yeah.
Before and after even, but it's not happening.
[reporter] I know you moved on and you like coaching like this, but do you miss this?
No, I miss, like this is the only event that I'm like,
oh, I kind of miss this,
but watching people run in the desert yesterday
made me realize why I stopped.
[laughing]
[reporter] Know where you are in the competition right now?
I think that last event bumped me up to first.
You know, it's still a tight race for like the top five or six,
but, coming into today, I think the top three of us
were separated by five points.
And then I think it was like through the top eight
was still a narrow points spread.
[Jamie] Event five was a 20 meter yoke carry,
straight into a 15 parallel handstand push-ups,
and then three rounds of 15 box jump overs,
and 10 ring muscle ups, and then you finish
with a 20 meter yoke carry again.
[Mikaela] I suggest the first round to be
a little slower on the box.
Put on the rings and then after that
you get onto the box and then you can speed up,
or slow down based on how you feel on the rings.
It's gonna be a little bit slower
on the handstand push-ups compared to the other girls.
She could speed up after that.
[woman] The yoke's heavy.
It's going to slow a few of the lighter girls down
who will move faster in the middle bit.
So it's going to be like a pretty good rest, I think.
[Sara] So I'd help my girls put the right height for the yoke,
and then I remembered, oh my gosh,
I have parallel handstand push-ups too.
So I ran to fix handstand push-ups
and then it's like three...
[announcer] ...two, one, go!
I was like, oh no!
Please don't make me disqualify!
[intense music]
[announcer] Laura Horvath,
who's moved up into fifth place,
made very easy work of that yoke!
[announcer 2] The thing with Laura is this particular event has specialties for her,
and some kryptonite for her.
The Achilles heel, and you just saw
that first rep was a strain.
That's one, she's got 14.
[Kristof] I don't think it's a family curse,
the handstand push-ups, but it doesn't go well for us.
[speaking Hungarian]
[Diego] There's a lot of people talking to Laura. She has her brother, she has her coach
and several other people throughout the weekend having a say.
Plus her own voice, right?
[speaking Hungarian]
[announcer] Sigmundsdottir is in second place.
About five reps behind Jamie Green.
Jamie Green who is third overall after four events
is running her way across the competition floor.
[announcer 2] Fraser will take event number five!
[announcer] And for Laura Horvath,
her chances of making it back at least to the podium,
are all but gone.
-[reporter] Laura, how'd it go? -[laughs] Not good.
I know my handstand push-ups are not great,
but I just did shitty.
I didn't do my handstand push-ups.
[Tommy] It's a pretty significant hole for Laura.
She finished second at the Games last year,
so she's in the conversation
to be a contender this year again,
but for the most part, if you want to win the CrossFit Games,
you can't have a hole like that.
You have to be pretty well rounded
in just about every aspect of fitness.
[speaking Hungarian]
I don't know how to put it.
I've worked so much on that.
I'm just not perfect.
[Tommy] So for Laura, it's something that's been a weakness
in the past, still a weakness now.
She's gonna have to dedicate the next few years
of development as kind of shoring up that hole as well.
[woman] So me, a fast row is like 155.
That's a really fast row for me.
And I remember watching Laura doing full bare bond,
and she was rowing my best row,
and she's like rowing that for like an hour.
I couldn't believe it.
I think she's pissed that I think she did it.
Did everything she can to go fast.
[intense music]
So event six was Acid Bath.
Which is now a very well known workout in CrossFit.
Pain.
Just pain, it's gonna hurt so bad.
[Tommy] Acid Bath is probably the most
appropriately named event of the weekend.
[announcer] This is how much pain can you take
and it's just straight grunt work.
Once again, Karin Frey.
We'll keep saying this name.
And Jamie Green has moved into first place
over Samantha Briggs by just four points.
A name that we do not see on the top 10
of the leaderboard is Laura Horvath.
[intense music]
[Tommy] Each one of the distances on these concept two machines
is just short enough to where you can give it
basically a full effort.
[Streat] That event is as much mental as it is physical.
You know how bad it's gonna hurt,
you know how bad you have to push
if you want to have a good finish on that, so yeah,
you get into the thick of things, and it's rough.
[Tommy] Your lungs start to burn a little bit, your muscles start to burn a little bit,
And before you know it, you've got this lactic acid burn
throughout your entire body.
[Jamie] I think more of time it's like 80% mental.
Especially like when you get to those top athletes.
Like everyone trains similar.
Everyone does long hours in the gym.
They have similar skill sets, but as [indistinct]
was those who can pull it out on the game day.
[intense electronic music]
[announcer] Fraser has one left,
but it's gonna be Khrennikov in lane 10!
[man 1] Everything in your body hurts,
and you can hardly even walk to the finish line.
[man 2] I've never experienced anything like that.
[man 3] My legs, literally, I couldn't even pick them up.
It was a bear crawl to the finish line.
[announcer] Laura Horvath blasting
the best time by 17 seconds!
[intense music]
[man] Someone get water.
Everyone was dead after that.
Yeah.
[Streat] I had somebody help me off the floor.
Like, that's not something I want people to see.
I literally could not walk off the floor.
That's how bad it was.
And then it just got worse.
I mean, guys were just laying in the tunnel
after five, ten minutes after the workout not able to move.
[Jamie] I think everyone was dead after that except for Laura. She was fine.
[audience cheering]
-You okay, hun? -No.
[groaning in pain]
[Diego] Laura comes in, crushes this event,
and then you see the men can't even walk.
And she's kinda just strolling off the competition floor,
so you know there's some mental toughness there.
Hi!
Yes! We got our picture with Laura! [laughs]
We were like 100 meters into the ski.
I was like Khrennikov, plus 12,
and I was like, "what?"
-He's going 10% faster? -[laughs] Yeah.
-I could tell my legs hurt. -Yeah.
But it was just like I couldn't feel it.
As soon as I stopped.
Yep, it all came.
Ah, my lungs.
[reporter] You gonna be a master next year.
-34. -Not doing bad for an old man.
-[reporter] And you? -28. I'm dead serious.
-I thought yo were [indistinct]. -Come on man, you're really old.
[laughs]
I mean, you're like masters next year.
I have another seven years of that.
Look how much better I could get in seven years.
Like you're already at your peak, like you're there.
Shit, seven years.
Seven years.
The only time I've ever felt like that,
or seen anything like that after a workout,
was at the Games, it was '14, right?
With the sled push?
And it was like people just couldn't stand up.
It was like one of those things like
the way I used to workout finishes is when the pain starts.
Oh, that was awful.
Did you just straight bear crawl across the finish line?
I almost had to as well.
[woman] I can't even imagine.
Like at that point it's just like...
Survival mode.
-Whatever you got to do. -Yeah.
Today was tough.
That last workout was just mean, it was...
No, like there was never a day of like,
I'm gonna beat so and so,
like me going on camera and talking about it.
There was like, I set a goal internally,
and then it worked.
And it's like, if you have something worth bragging about,
you don't have to.
You don't have to brag for yourself.
If you have something worth actually bragging about,
other people will do it for you.
[upbeat music]
So coming into the final day,
we got news that Laura Horvath
was pulling out of the competition, withdrawing.
[man 1] What's going on with Laura?
[man 2] She's at the doctor's now,
getting her back checked out.
It's early in the season.
Not a good time to be taking any chances.
My back blew up after the run.
And I mean during the run.
And I thought I was gonna be okay,
and I'm not so good right now.
That's a difficult decision to make
for a lot of these athletes.
They are training year round
for these very specific moments of competition
to where it very much feels like,
you know, the totality of their world
is in front of them at this competition.
To be able to acknowledge that
hey, this competition is over for me
and I need to do what's best and I need to pull out,
is something that they're not very used to.
[reporter] How were you able to get through the pain and win last night?
I don't know. I just... I don't know.
In the rope area it was painful just yanking onto rope,
but I just like I wanted to do the event.
After did not finishing the previous event,
I wanted to win this, so I just worked through the pain.
[Tommy] These are basically superhumans.
They are physically capable of things
that no other people on the planet are capable of.
And so to kind of bring yourself back down to Earth,
and have to acknowledge that something
as devastating as an injury is gonna force you to withdraw,
it's a tough decision to make.
[speaking Hungarian]
I've never withdraw from,
like pull out from a competition ever,
so it's a bad feeling, it's like...
I don't want that to happen to anyone
because it's like, not good emotionally
and physically it's not, yeah.
It's the worst thing you have to do when you have to stop a competition.
Like you worked hard for it,
and then you have to stop midway...
It's-- you feel like all your work is gone to waste.
I was upset, like gutted for her.
'Cause I know what that feels like.
It sucks when you're halfway through
and you gotta stop because of an injury,
but there's the good thing with the new system
that she can take a rest, recover,
and then come back in a few months to another competition.
[reporter] How're you feeling on the last day going into it?
Feeling good. 400 points up for grabs.
Pretty much the same amount of points open up
the last four days...
-Uh-huh. -...or three days.
Just going to try and capitalize on all the events.
Blast them, hopefully close the gap.
And, I mean, anything can still happen.
That's one thing I've always been good at,
is just let it go and just keep moving on,
and always try to see what can come at the end.
I've done it a few times at Regionals,
to get into the Games.
So hopefully I can pull it off here.
Last day of the competition.
It's gonna feel good.
It's going good.
[reporter] What's your hopes for the weekend?
-[man] Being top 10. -[reporter] Top 10?
Yeah, top 10 was the goal when we came here.
-Now what is? -But now is top three.
[announcer] The leaderboard is starting to take shape.
On the women's side, Sam Briggs, still alive
and in charge, with a 34 point lead over Jamie Green.
Sara Sigmundsdottir has moved into third,
but a name we probably don't know very well,
is Karin Frey who's sitting in fourth place
in striking distance and after a day
that we have four scored events.
[intense music]
[announcer] Event number seven is under way
as athletes spread across the competition floor
to tackle nine rope lines.
This is the final day of competition,
with four totaled events.
[announcer 2] Now this is great!
Fact that Mat's able to kinda lead the pack,
just like you said, these guys are going to need to take some chances
and I think they may be
overextending themselves by trying to follow Mat.
So there's leading the pack and then there is drawing pack out.
I feel like Fraser does a good job
of dictating the pace against other athletes.
[intense music]
[announcer 1] Mat plants the flag in event number seven,
and gets another event win this weekend.
And then Jamie Green, if she can hold on,
may be able to push herself just ahead of Akerlund
-by one spot, and she will! -[announcer 2 laughs]
So coming into the last day, the women's side of the house
was really, really tight points wise.
And there was four to five women
that were realistically within a shot of potentially
walking away with a win.
Nobody's gonna know, like...
Anything can happen, it's so close.
But for the men's side it was the opposite.
Mat Fraser was starting to run away with it.
He had multiple event wins.
He was starting to tie more of them together,
It looked like it was his competition.
[Travis] The goal coming in, I think, my mindset was to win.
But then throughout the competition, things changed.
There's still 300 points up for grabs.
Which is a lot of points, anything could happen,
so I'm just right outside of third,
so hopefully now it's just to get on the podium
and make some more money.
Diaper and milk money, is all that is.
[reporter] What's the next workout?
Sandbag carry, burpee box jump-over,
carry assault bike, and then back.
It's the workout of death. It's only gonna be--
It's a three minute time cap, so you'll be going full blast for the whole time.
There's absolutely no thinking.
Are you willing to suffer or not?
That's it.
It's killer.
Three minute time cap, it's good.
[announcer] As you move to individual event number eight,
Sam Briggs had a 30 point lead
over second place, Jamie Green and it has changed.
Jamie Green, five points, now sitting in first.
A lot of things can happen with such a fast-paced event.
The smallest hiccup could be the difference
between 10 places.
[announcer] And we saw a painful event yesterday,
this is going to be basically the same realm.
The object here is pedal to the metal.
[Jamie] That was an awesome workout.
No one had time to practice it.
You sort of went into it, you knew it had to go well.
Normally on a bike, I'm a bit smaller.
So quite often I get behind on a bike.
This time, I was like, I'm not going to lose on a bike again.
[intense music]
[Jamie] And got to the burpees, I'd never felt my legs so heavy.
[announcer] And you can see what's happening with the leg.
[Sara] My legs just didn't want to jump.
It was the weirdest feeling I've ever experienced.
[announcer] Mat Fraser has moved ahead of everybody.
Jamie Green was first to the box,
but Sam Briggs, Sam Briggs has moved ahead of Jamie Green!
[announcer 2] Wow, all by himself.
[announcer 3] Mat Fraser another event win.
Sitting in second no more,
Sam Briggs has moved back into first place!
The worst an event is supposed to hurt,
the better Samantha Briggs does.
And she gets shot out of a cannon,
and gets herself a first place finish
and a much needed 100 points to put her back
into that top podium position.
[Diego] She just doesn't slow down.
Samantha Briggs has an incredible work capacity.
And it's just like the closer the race is, the harder she works.
A lot of athletes can take one or two events here and there
but where you really see the guys like Mat
and athletes like Dani, Sara, Laura,
all these people really make their space
as the weekend gets longer and the volume goes up.
When fatigue settles in,
when, you know, people are tired and hurting,
that's when these guys just kinda start
making and taking their lead.
You see Mat on the last day there, he's going up.
[announcer] Mat Fraser, back to back wins.
[commentator] He looks phenomenal.
Phenomenal for this early in the season.
I can only imagine what it's gonna look like towards the end of the season.
[Tommy] You might be able to beat Mat in one element of something,
you might be a better runner than him
or slightly better at the row,
or you might be able to lift
a few more kilos than him in one particular lift,
but when you start to mix stuff together
like gymnastics, conditioning
and all the other aspects of fitness together,
this is where he really shines as the fittest man on Earth.
[announcer] I don't want to say,
I mean it's the very first event of the 2019 season.
I don't see anyone that can catch this guy.
I don't think it's a secret.
You know, I've been shown that like I have
an incredible support network around me.
Between Sammy, and then my manager, Keith.
They do anything and everything they can to help me
throughout the day, you know,
take as many responsibilities off my plate so I can focus
and put all my time and energy into training and competing.
I just want a cold shower.
Want to do the best I can.
And if I want that happen on the competition floor,
I have to do it multiple times a day
and training repeatedly throughout the whole year.
[intense music]
[retching]
-[Mat] Yo, that's my move. -[people laugh]
Yeah, don't take that.
When you have so many big guys here,
you have to give everything you have
to stay in that top, top five.
[reporter] Like what was the goal when you came out?
To win, was it to make it to the CrossFit Games?
To win some money in Dubai?
To win some money to go to Australia.
[reporter] You wanted to win some money to...
I'm doing the Australian Championship.
-[reporter] Oh, okay. -So it was to win to pay to go and compete there.
That was the plan.
[reporter] What's the plan now?
The plan is now to try [laughs]
and qualify for the CrossFit Games.
I did not expect to be like sat where I am,
but it's so close up there.
So, yeah. Playtime.
[intense music]
[announcer] We have 30 rep total of barbell workout.
It starts off with 15 snatches, and then 15 clean and jerks.
It's a six minute cap.
[announcer 2] And already over in lane number eight,
Dani Speegle has moved up into first.
[Sara] That was one of my favorite events.
It's only barbell, heavy barbell.
Could've been heavier, then I would've been happier.
[intense music]
[Jamie] Yeah, it's a hard one. Like you're at the end of a weekend.
They're pretty heavy weights.
It's one of those ones if you're a bigger girl, it helps lot.
[announcer] Sara Sigmundsdottir just hands in the air.
Billy Georges trying to hang on.
Mat Fraser has one rep.
Final rep for Speegle and she'll cross the finish line.
[announcer] That was very impressive by Sara.
She needed that event.
Again, one spot qualifies for the game.
And, man, these ladies are really putting on a show for all of us.
Best looking guy in the competition.
-Best looking guy? -Listen. He says I need to quit CrossFit and do modeling.
Physique, physique, body building.
-[woman] Interesting -Do you agree?
-I second that opinion. -Best looking man. Straight from physique competitor.
I might have to retire after this competition.
Change career paths.
Got that retirement fund set up yet?
Or are you just spending it all on cars?
[Tommy] One of the biggest draws for Dubai by far is the prize money.
Do you know about that 401K?
Dubai offers more prize money than any other sanctioned event.
It's not just for what your placing is
on the overall leaderboard.
You get prize money for your finishes
in every workout as well.
It's $3,000 for first in an event,
$2,000 for second in an event, and $1,000 for third in an event.
The overall placement pays out $50,000 for first,
$30,000 for second, $20,000 for third.
One of the unique things about the prize pot in Dubai
is that everyone leaves with something.
No one comes and leaves empty handed.
So the minimum amount you can make
for just coming to Dubai, just showing up, is $1,500.
All about diaper money.
[Streat] Even if you're not going to win
or think to get a place in top 10,
you have the potential of making
a pretty decent amount of money.
Just by if you're to win an event,
or get top three in an event, so...
Brought a big duffel bag.
[Mohammed] The reason we make sure that everyone makes money
is so they can continue to be a professional athlete and push harder.
Athletes no longer have to worry about flying to Dubai, and coming to Dubai.
They can worry about competing, they can worry about winning.
There's a lot of athletes out there now
who are just focusing on training,
so they're not working as well.
So that's a big attraction for people to come over.
[Tommy] So we're coming to the end of the competition,
and the organizers kind of had
one more twist in their back pocket.
Just before the event, they announced
that the final event alone
was gonna be worth $30,000 to the winner.
We timed it by 10, yeah.
So it's $3,000, time 10 it's 30, yeah.
Which is good, yeah?
Isn't it nicer than 10,000?
Which is more than most competitions
have in total just for that last event out here in Dubai.
Thirty grand.
Pay off student loans with that.
Thirty grand?
That's decent.
All for me.
Straight to the gold and diamond broker tomorrow.
[Sara] I want to be the best athlete
because I want to show people what I can do,
and I want to show girls that don't believe in themselves
in a young age that they can work hard,
and be where I am.
It doesn't drive me to get prize money.
[intense music]
And I may be one of few people
that doesn't like money. [laughs]
[announcer] The 2018 Dubai CrossFit Championships
is coming towards the end.
It took nine events to get here,
but only seven points are actually separating
your top four athletes.
Four women that were all within
a decent points spread of walking away with the win.
You had Sam Briggs who had been towards the top all weekend long.
You had Jamie Green who was right on Sam's tail.
You had Sara Sigmundsdottir,
who's been one of the favorites.
You kind of had a surprise athlete in Karin Frey,
who's been hanging tough in the top four all weekend long.
And for Mat Fraser, he basically had the win locked up.
He was so far ahead of everyone else,
he could just put it on cruise control.
But now with that $30,000 on the line,
there's a tremendous amount of incentive
for him to go out and just torch this event,
and going full steam ahead to try
and walk away with this $30,000.
[intense music]
[epic choral music]
[announcer] All four of these ladies have a different strength and a weakness
and they need to play their game. You got to be very smart and aware of
where you are and what you need to do.
[announcer 2] There is a lot of things
that still need to happen, so it's not just win or in,
unless you're Sam Briggs or Jamie Green.
If you're Karin Frey or Sara Sigmundsdottir,
you need to win and have a little bit of help.
[Jamie] That was a very long workout.
It was a final and there was
a lot on the line for the girls.
So we were all on very similar points
and it was almost like whoever won the workout, won DCC.
[epic choral music]
[intense music]
[announcer] One event stands between four athletes,
and one trip to the CrossFit Games.
[Sara] I never look at leaderboards, so I have no idea where I stand.
Was I fourth, was I fifth?
[Jamie] It's not often that you get to go
out there and compete when there's sort of like that much on the line.
And it was such a good workout that it sort of had parts where
it's one person's strength, one person's weakness,
another person's strength here.
[announcer 1] Green is one point behind Sam Briggs
on the leaderboard.
On the left, Sara Sigmundsdottir.
[announcer 2] She needs to go unbroken on these wall bumps.
[Sara] The only thing you can do is to learn. It's the best you can do.
And if you do that, then you've reached your goal.
[announcer 1] Briggs is off the wall, onto the clean.
She's ahead of Green and Sigmundsdottir.
[intense music]
[announcer 1] We've had four events today.
Event number seven, first place for Mat.
Event number eight, first place for Mat.
Event nine, first place for Mat.
With two more sets, Mat Fraser will go four for four.
Your 2018 Dubai CrossFit Champion, Mat Fraser
is going back to the CrossFit Games!
Sam Briggs is moving to the barbell for the last time.
[Sara] Sam is just the [indistinct] fit type of human being.
Her lungs can keep on going forever,
and she just always surprises you how good she is.
[announcer 1] 20 meters for the lunges.
[Jamie] Sam is insane and can train like hours on end.
[Carmen] I never see her like struggling to workout
like how other people struggle.
She just keeps on going, and going, and going.
[announcer 1] And with one spread across the floor,
welcome back to the CrossFit Games, Sam Briggs!
[intense music]
And the first person to run over and congratulate her,
is Jamie Green just being one point
away from qualifying herself.
[inspirational music]
[Sara] Enemies on the floor, when the clock starts
and then we're friends straight after.
[announcer 2] At the top, out of the game,
back in, barely making it, having to go masters,
being injured, and then in this particular
brand new setup, the way that they do this,
that you have one shot to get in,
and she made it into the shot.
[announcer 1] How competitive this guy is?
He's getting better and stronger
beyond what we can possibly imagine every year.
[announcer 2] But you're right.
There's nothing that Mat Fraser cannot handle.
Mat Fraser has now set himself up
with an opportunity to fight
for his fourth consecutive title
at the CrossFit Games.
[Jamie] The last three years it's been amazing.
It's been one of those cobs that's up there with the Games,
so now the sanction is going to grow even more.
[Mohammed] Four different days, ten workouts.
Then you got qualifications,
Dubai CrossFit Championship 2018 has come to an end.
But it's only the start of the partnership.
2019 will be even better.
♪ I be running with The wrong cash, cash, cash ♪
♪ Let's go
♪ Pop it, pop it
♪ Hit the floor
♪ Let it rain on you
♪ Then I go
♪ Look at, look at
♪ Palm trees
♪ Summer breeze
♪ You and me
♪ What you want
♪ What you need
♪ Top down
♪ No keys
♪ And say the wrong
♪ In a restaurant Slow down... ♪
It's been pretty cool, like all weekend,
like really pushing.
It wasn't over until the last workout.
Like it was fight the full weekend,
so it was really good.
[reporter] And training wise,
what does the next few months look like for you?
Work on my weaknesses.
Get this elbow strong.
And yeah, hopefully get ready for the Games.
♪ Get in
♪ We're celebrating All night... ♪
Happy with second place.
Obviously want to win, but it's out of range now.
He is so good.
You just cannot.
It's a good experience, you know.
Like after that competition,
like what you need to work on,
like how you stand compared to the other athletes.
And, I mean, there are a lot of other opportunities
to qualify for the Games, so
I'm pretty happy with second place.
And I can't be other than happy.
Feel great.
It's so good to be back competing.
[reporter] You're happy with placement you have?
Oh, I am. I made a few mistakes throughout the weekend,
so I'm happy that I still got there.
[reporter] What was the best part of the weekend?
It was the crowd.
The goosebumps when you walk out to the floor,
you're so stressed to start a workout,
and then you just hear your name.
It's just the best feeling in the world.
[reporter] What now?
What's your path now?
Oh so now, I've only been training
normally for eight weeks.
So now it's just WaterPalooza.
So I'm just keeping on training.
[reporter] You're going to WaterPalooza?
Yeah, bro!
And the vigil.
Get some experience back in this body.
-Good luck to you. -Thank you.
Feeling good, better than before the last workout.
It was difficult to have four workouts
on the last day and we've shot regularly,
but it was the same quarter outfit.
[reporter] So what now, what's the goal?
Uh... Do the Open in France.
And maybe to get my qualification for the Games,
and after working sanctionals, and French full on.
He never ceases to amaze me, but I'm not surprised.
And it never gets old, I will tell you that.
It's so cool to watch.
I mean, he had already won.
Granted there was a lot of money on the line,
but still that hurt bad.
That's so cool.
Such a great competitor, you know?
So fun to watch.
Fun to be along for the ride, you know?
So cool.
-[reporter] Do you think anyone can beat Mat Fraser? -Yes.
Do you think you could be the man to beat?
I mean, I think anybody can be beaten.
And I'm not gonna count myself out.
I mean if I do that,
then I'm pretty much just admitting to losing.
And I wouldn't be a competitor and athlete
if I didn't believe to some degree
that anybody could be beaten.
It can take any event.
One thing could happen, you know? You never know.
And I think he just has to be pressured.
I mean, I definitely think whoever's gonna beat him
has to be 120% on their A game, and cannot have any mistakes, 'cause he doesn't make mistakes.
And that's one thing of why he does so well when he competes.
So it's just being able to just capitalize on that and see how the weekend goes.
[reporter] Do you think this competition would be a good gauge to see where Mat is?
Well, you're not trying to compare yourself to Mat as such,
but to see where you're at as well?
Yeah, I mean the fact that so many
Games athletes come to this event.
So I mean, you're looking at probably 25 out of 37
have been to the Games on the male side,
so it kind of gives you kind of a good head space
on where you're going to be at going into the season
based on how you probably do here
because most of the people are starting to change
their training for events like this
where there's a lot of money backing it
and performance side of it that didn't get you to the Games.
Everybody's probably gonna be coming
and bringing their best A game to show up here to earn the spot.