Murph at the 2016 CrossFit Games

military law enforcement and first responder communities were amongst the earliest proponents of crossfit their intensity matched with the fitness crossfit provides is a match made in heaven when a service member dies in the line of duty a crossfit hero workout is created in their name hero wads are an opportunity to reflect on the sacrifices of the fallen to speak their names and honor their memory when you feel in pain during the workout it's nothing compared to how how this person felt or how this person's family felt like that kind of puts it in perspective like this pain doesn't hurt that badly these workouts have been a tradition of crossfit gyms since 2008 and the quintessential hero workout is myrrh it is revered as one of the toughest most iconic challenges in crossfit a tribute to its legendary namesake lieutenant michael murphy last year murph made its debut at the crossfit games and was unanimously regarded as the linchpin event of the competition it's very rough but awesome i mean that's what we come here to do right test ourselves like that this year murph is back with a new format in crossfit events looks can be deceiving and different does not mean easier no matter how you slice it 600 reps is 600 reps 2 miles is 2 miles weight vests are unforgiving and murph is a giant murph it celebrates an american hero but you can bet that the 40 women here in carson were not celebrating when they found out that this iconic workout was going to be part of the crossfit games for the second straight year it is the fifth event we still don't know how many remain but we do know on sunday it's all going to be over and we will crown the fittest woman on earth tia claire toomey is your overall leader two former champions also in the top five that's samantha briggs and third annie thorstadter in fifth and then a rookie in second place that's to neil reid welcome inside the stubhub center in carson california i'm sean woodland alongside 2009 crossfit games champion tanya wagner and bill grundler last year this event took its toll on many women most notably anna annie thor's daughter who went on to have her worst ever career overall finish at the crossfit game she finished 38th and a big reason this event right here this is the event that wreaked havoc on annie she actually could never quite bounce back from its effects and eventually ended up withdrawing from competition because of it these are pictures we've never seen in all the years of annie competing and all the events just so uncharacteristic but i can tell you it will not happen this year it will not happen today she has done everything in her power to combat the heat and be ready for redemption with murph many of these athletes have been through this event once before that was last year and they know how to handle it this you're going to be a little bit of a different format we'll get into that in a second here but what are the lessons that they now take in to 2016. well for these guys it isn't about learning the movements it's about learning to battle the elements and that it was the heat and being being able to be acclimated to the heat in the humidity so we had athletes that were coming in way early this year training in places like las vegas people from other side of the world having to come over just get used to that so they got to prepare for carson and the heat and the humidity in the stadium and that's the big biggest lesson a whole lot of work is going to be done with murph two total miles of running and then a bunch of pull-ups push-ups and air squats they will begin and end with a one-mile run and then five rounds of those three movements a little bit different than what we saw last year as far as the format is concerned for more on that let's send it down to rory mckernan if you watch the murph event last year you'll notice that the field has been flipped flopped now athletes will travel from south to north to leave on the run they will return from north behind me to south after taking on the pull-ups at the rig you'll notice where they'll do their pull-ups and push-ups on these round markers remember it's five rounds of 20 40 60 round one there round two here and so on the athlete on round five is about to leave for their second run [Applause] thank you row and samantha briggs in the middle of your screen the 2013 reebok crossover games champion right next to her is camila blanc bazines she's the 2014 [Applause] [Music] champion the 2016 reebok crossfit games version of murf is underway we mentioned samantha briggs right before they started here she is the woman that won this event in 2015 and two champions out front that's catherine david's daughter who won last year and annie thora's daughter who is the only woman to win two crossfit games championships annie thought thor's daughter is the one who i'm gonna watch to see you know guys what is she doing this year what how is she gonna attack this it was something last year that we had never seen and we were just a little bit um you know anxious when we heard murph came back up just to see how her and karl webb both will attack this and i have to wonder mentally will they go out too slow i don't think that's the case seeing how hard she charged right out of the gates wow you know the way i saw these guys was they were racing these women were racing for the stairs and i understand you don't want to get caught behind someone we have a long event so i don't necessarily know if that was something that they needed to do unless it was more of a mental thing like i want to get into this game and i want to attack last year before murph went down dave castro huddled everyone together it was something that they've never had happen before at the games he gave them a little pep talk about murph and carl webb actually spoke about it and said that's what got her so jacked up so pumped up you know hearing that speech and really doing this as a memorial type of event probably almost forgetting a little bit that they had a full competition ahead of them but today you know getting out from the stairs is one thing but how they attack this first mile here on the road i really hope a lot of people did their homework learned their lesson from last year candace wagner is out front early the temperature right now 70 degrees and another thing that's different this year as opposed to last year last year the individual athletes did this event in the middle of the afternoon when it was the hottest so we've moved it to the morning now the temperatures are a little bit cooler and it's candace wagner who is out front but the lack of scorching heat right now is going to make a big difference definitely it's going to help right here jen smith is walking she had some issues in aromas on wednesday with a with her ankle and so we're glad to see she's still in competition but there's only so much she can do she wants to push as hard as she can it's her first time as an individual here at the games jen smith's still in the competition she hurt her foot during that 7k trail run it was basically on the very first loop she came limping back after that initial loop on the page segment and was unable to complete that event but it's the former marine candice wagner who's on the left of your screen jen smith is on the right wagner served five years in the u.s marine corps where she achieved the rank of sergeant the c has been to the games two other times her best finish was in 2010 when she finished 17th overall running is definitely one of her strengths and so maybe her strategy here is to get out early to use those two miles in this event to get ahead of the rest of the field but we saw last year when you do go out too hard typically it's not it's not a lead you can keep in an event so long like murph sean as jen smith was walking by she was in tears i saw her in the lobby of the hotel this morning she's having trouble with plantar fascia she thought that she'd be able to do murph slow today but she said it hurts worse than it even did yesterday also keep your eyes on chyna cho she was the back of the pack leaving at aromas she said she had a little bit of an ankle issue she had turned it on the trail run so keep your eyes on those athletes initial one mile run a little bit different than we saw last year in 2015 and then after they complete this it's back inside the soccer stadium here at the suburb center where they will do 100 pull-ups 200 push-ups and 300 air squats but it's partitioned differently this year candace wagner has made the turn and is heading back for that but the way that it's set up that's going to have an effect on how they attack it yeah when you have to do a hundred pull-ups straight you can get to a certain point and then you're worried about like okay what kind of small manageable numbers am i able to use and you're having to deal with that full just just blasting of those muscles all the way through with this partition set up you actually get to let those muscles recover so these athletes are going to feel a little bit better they're going to feel a little bit fresher when they get up on the bar they're going to be able to take bigger chunks of these movements and it's going to actually allow them to move quicker through this event so they should be that paired on top of the uh the fact that it's a little cooler a little nicer today not the sun's not beating down on them as hard um i think we should see some faster times than last year that you i i totally agree with you the only thing you have to remember though is those athletes that don't have the lung capacity as well they're going to be going a little faster so when you partition it this way you do get more of that lung effect where you can only go so fast on 200 push-ups so you're slowing down your heart rate will slow down a little bit more more muscle fatigue when you do them straight all in all-in-one big set but there's also the mental part of that as well you know when you only have to do x amount it's a you know it's an easier hurdle to get to and then that's going to kind of drive you along for those five rounds sure candace wagner is your leader behind her is anatomical and then it's sam briggs in third catherine david's daughter currently sits in fourth place kristen holta is behind her and now anna tuna cliff is passing candace wagner for the lead and sam briggs also gaining ground as well another element that's a little different this year is these athletes this is their third day of competition last year they only had the swim it was a paddleboard swim it was long there was some fatigue but these athletes have already been through four events and now they're going into merc that's definitely different their legs have already been through the through the ringer with wednesday with the trail run with the heavy deadlifts the sprint so i manage just to see too if we see any you know any just signs of that and i'm when we're gonna see that and i think that we will see some of that i mean this is a lot of a lot of just running a lot more running than these athletes have done in a competition setting like this for the games uh you know it used to be if you had the one long run then that was it then it was murph and that was it now we have both put together um and again like you said this is their fifth event you know so yeah we're gonna we're gonna see the effects for sure i know when murph was first announced there were different people out there saying can't believe they're bringing it back i was celebrating i'm so excited always when you get to see the level of fitness improve and when they re-test and repeat we are going to see different numbers yes it's partitioned differently but i'm really anxious to see the athletes that did well like sam briggs last year sarah sigma's daughter who was a rookie how well they performed last year and now coming back saying hey it didn't did affect me last year i was strong i was good to go and now i get to do it again already done that check i can do it the toffee women are making their way the soccer stadium as is catherine davidson who sits in fourth more and more women now into the soccer stadium and they will start that descent onto the field while they will begin five rounds of pull-ups push-ups and air squats the women are re-entering through the northwest corner that's the way that they went out the original course had them coming in through the northeast but do the early morning do that's still on the field and the ramps it was extremely slippery still that ramp down to the field is pretty slippery so watch the athletes being careful i also just talked to anatomic cliff's coach watch for her to go 12 and 8 on the first two sets of pull-ups with a hipping pull with a butterfly kip before going back to a standard kipping pull-up thanks for samantha briggs and anna tony clipped the first two women in as the rest of the field is getting set to join them samantha briggs won this event last year and route to finishing fourth overall it was her best finish since 2013 when she won the whole thing and here's anatomically who as you heard rose plans on breaking up these pull-ups in the sets of 12 and eight on the left is candace wagner no lane assignments here it's basically first come first serve for the athletes antenna clip is one of those athletes that just does so well in the longer events she again she did this one last year so another year under her belt [Music] samantha briggs is done with her first set of 20. and now it is on to her push-ups getting a no rep from her judge didn't look like she locked it out the whole way arms need to be extended at the top and that body armor or weight vest that weighs 14 pounds needs to hit the ground in order for the rep to count approaching the nine minute mark here of the 2016 version of mirth [Music] to look like as long as if she almost thought she was done and then had to go back for about four more sam briggs just having a great start to this year's games this is her fifth time to the games this woman has placed no lower than 19th place back in her first rookie season in 2011 to fourth last year fourth in 2013 first it's just an incredible resume when you look at her games experience and then where she places because she had a lot of holes in her game years ago to still be placing that high on the on the in the ranking and ending up as well as she did this year she's announced this is her final game this is the last year we're not gonna we're only gonna see the top and and the best from sam briggs this year we already are and samantha briggs is currently your leader and on to her first round of 60 air squad sarah sigmund's daughter who comes in in fourth place overall just four points behind samantha briggs had an outstanding performance at the regional we saw her battle head to head with andy thor's daughter there we knew that was going to continue going into the 2016 reebok crossfit games carlene matthews is on the left of your screen and christie arimo the rookie is on the right mandy thor's daughter moving up to join samantha briggs on the air squats and sandra pacelli who's in that blue shirt next to briggs thor starter currently sits in fifth place overall and if she could come up with a top ten finish in this event look out because a healthy annie is a dangerous annie in the crossfit games not only physically but then mentally to be able to attack this if she can get through it and defeat this this kind of demon that was haunting her over the past year making her withdraw from last year's game that would be huge for the rest of the competition mentally for her last year annie thor said she felt pretty good through the pull-ups and into the push-ups so there's really air squatcher she really started to feel it well if you look at her squat right now that's not a very pretty squat for anything i mean she's already leaning way forward and that's going to show a lot of taxing on her back as she as we get into the further reps and the further rounds i mean if i if i was her i'd go a little bit wider with that stance try to keep that chest up and try to breathe a little bit more just like she's struggling already in round one the body armor though 14 pounds so that does make it it does play a factor she uh she obviously is used to that she's she trains with that so it's not like that's something new but you know it is a different element here in competition and this is like we said the fourth event she pushed it in aroma she pushed it on the hill sprint jen smith continues to walk there is a 55 minute time cap for this event and it's very likely that jenn smith will not be making that but the thing for her this is a matter of pride as she remains in the competition after injuring her foot on day one of competition that happened on wednesday in aromas on the 7k trail run samantha briggs has just closed out her second round of 20 pull-ups and now second round of 40 push-ups for the woman who comes in with eight career event wins at the cross of games and that includes what she did on wednesday in aromas in the 7k trail run [Music] and the 7k trail run no surprise how well she plays there the biggest surprise for me so far has been how well she did in that deadlift ladder taking fifth place in the deadlift ladder in one of the strength components those are the events in previous years games where she has done poorly and has pulled her down and made her not take a podium spot sarah sigma's daughter is working through her set of push-ups and keeping up a pretty frantic pace on those [Music] of fans in the stands here from her native iceland she was training in northern california in stockton to get used to the heat catherine davidson your defending champion trying to work her way into the top five in event number five catherine in that first mile run she was all smiles running she was looking forward to she won a more challenging more difficult games this year she she spoke to us earlier about and just said you know the more crazy the better she got some of that with the surprise trip to carson or to aromas on wednesday and i wonder what her thoughts were on murph seeing that long event she wants it she wants a challenge well here it is again for you knowing that some of the other ladies have trained and they're and they're going to make a push for it david's daughter has moved on to the air squats about five six athletes on that second round of air squats but sam briggs continues to lead just like she did in 2015 when she won this event look at her composure she just looks so you know opposite of annie squat bill how you were saying about annie's squat look at sam and sam has never been known for her prettiness beauty in her squat sorry sam it's gotten a lot better it really has and you look great i just she's so she's so fun to watch it's just just so tenacious well this is the scary thing look at sarah sigma's daughter here look at the just the pain on her face you can already see the toll that murphy's taking on sarah and that's what's so freakishly um incredible about sam briggs is she looks like it's a stroll in the park yeah now you know with the hands up on her head she's just trying to be able to catch a breath i mean again we're so early in these rounds we have a lot more to go yet it's not about trying to crush themselves through you know one of these things that these late i don't really see actually if you look just to the left carly matthews is sort of doing it using their arms out of the bottom to help lift themselves up they can actually throw their arms up in the air to get a little bit of momentum out of the hole especially when you have a 14-pound vest on sport especially with that extra weight pulling you down you want to use every advantage you can to help you get up kerry pierce who was a rookie last year at the games making her second straight trip to the crossing games last year she got here to carson after having only done crossfit for about six months that's how talented that young woman is but that's your leader samantha briggs now on to round number three [Music] wow samantha's still going with those large sets of pull-ups that's amazing she is i love watching her on these long events she just she never shows any sign of fatigue or of any sort of like stress or or you know trouble she just grinds it's amazing always staying relaxed and speaking of grinding that's exactly what jen smith is doing just trying to work her way down the steps and join her fellow competitors at the rig known as zeus so she can get as good a score as possible and keep herself in the 2016 reebok crossfit games we saw this last year with samantha briggs with her push-up she varies her grip and she varies where she puts her hands quite a bit throughout these sets yeah it's super smart again the the movements are partitioned and if you do that again you're it's like you're re-partitioning them again re-partitioning them again so you're not tiring out the exact same muscles the entire time move them around do a little bit of chest on this one a little bit tricep on this little shoulder on this one it's working for her so far samantha briggs continues to lead here she took the lead on the last part of the initial one mile run candice wagner the former marine went out hot early and a ton of cliff and samantha bridge will be able to track her down and now samantha bridge is all by herself in the lead she is on her third round of 40 push-ups anything with upper body is just where sam just kind of takes off too we say about the endurance but really her upper body after she had the fractured patella back in 2013 2012 it kept her out of the game season that year we really saw when she came back she had done a lot of upper body and so it really has showed she's kept that strength fractured her foot last year so it seems like she bangs up the lower half of her body but she keeps on strengthening the top part we see her do you know muscle ups with vests and weighted muscle ups just volumes and volume so pull up to the 14 pound best no problem for her [Music] last year samantha briggs did this event in 39 minutes 10.1 seconds and that was going straight through so all 100 pull-ups all 200 push-ups and all 300 air squats in a row the overall leader is tia toomey and this was an event last year where she did not do that well she finished 27 52 minutes 44.8 seconds if she can survive this it's likely that she will keep herself in the top three but if she has a similar result as she did last year she could find herself on the outside looking in when it comes to a podium spot but still plenty of events left we don't know how many but we do know we have all day today saturday and sunday toomey finished 27th briggs of course won it the sigma's daughter would be very happy with a similar similar result there andy thorstadter had problems with the heat trying to improve on her performance and sandra pacelli who currently sits in sixth place needs a better mark there to keep herself on the upper part of the leaderboard shelley's having a great start so far in aromas he went the long distance run getting swim so she's sitting atop the leaderboard which is nice but she has her work cut out if uh if she didn't make improvements from last year in her training for this year's merch the winner of this event will get 100 points second place gets 94 third gets 88 and then the worse you finish the fewer points you receive the last place finisher receives no points but samantha briggs is trying to put some distance between herself and the women she is chasing most notably the rookie to neil reed and tia toomey meanwhile karl webb is another woman who last year had a ton of problems with the heat suffered exhaustion passed out at the end of the event but she is making a move on samantha briggs carl webb clearly learned her lesson last year very smart athlete she loves the just the typical grunt work the crossfit style workouts nothing too crazy and fancy and so she was disappointed last year that she doesn't even remember that final mile run she said she just totally went out too hard like i mentioned dave castro gave a little pep talk her coach made her watch the movie that was dedicated to murph the night before lone survivor so this year it was a little different strategy they weren't going to give her the push she definitely doesn't need the extra adrenaline wise athlete and she definitely was very smart holding back a little bit car webb currently sits in 12th place overall and a finish towards the top of this event would certainly help her cause to get herself under the podium for the first time in her career and despite all the difficulties that karl webb had last year samantha briggs is closing out her third round but carl webb still finished fifth overall what was so impressive you know it's not danny thor's daughter out of competition she took the bottom of the pack but for webb yes still taking fifth even despite her condition so you know if she can keep herself in it mentally obviously that last run is going to be that much better than last year and carl webb is now threatening samantha briggs for the lead webb is on the right bridge is on the left and both of them are on their fourth round of 20 push-ups sorry 20 pull-ups 40 push-ups and 60 air squats car is so quick with those push-ups her sets are few but they're fast and that's really important just to minimize that time under tension with that weight vest just short quick sets really smart way to go i mentioned at the top show of the show here that a lot of women were not happy when this event was announced in the second straight year you would think car web would have been one of them but she wasn't she wanted another crack at this thing and she is chasing samantha briggs in the middle of your screen who was the leader now gets hit with a no rep and briggs looks like she's tiring a bit a little bit more for sure than we're used to seeing more than we've seen so far but you know with kara webb it's not that she's just competing against the other athletes carweb truly is a true competitor she competes against herself and it ticked her off last year what happened and so i mean she had the effects from murph going into other events she is a fighter and she there's one thing i know about her she goes back home and she makes sure if there's any weakness or any in her armor she fixes it samantha brings trying to hold off a challenge from carl webb and despite the fact that webb and if you watched last year you remember how awful she looked running in looked like she was going to pass out webb still finished 13th in the event [Applause] [Applause] these two towards the front of the pack we got carly matthews catherine davis outer and carrie pierce who are also now joining that fight for the lead here in murph and you know that's it sam briggs went out so so much ahead of the game so much ahead of the pack it was easy to watch her but some of the other girls pacing that out the first couple rounds waiting to make their move now is the time to do it in the final round or two briggs has been passed by carlene matthews who is back on the rig and starting round number five she is your leader in this event a handful of women have been able to reel in samantha briggs carlene matthews one of them catherine david's daughter is also pushing for the top spot as is kari pierce carl webb is there the fifth and final round for carlene matthews on the pull-ups well unlike other events where you're side by side with the athletes that are coming in you know on your placing this was just a free-for-all so it's hard for probably the other sam to see both ends of the field where everyone is at since you're so spread out but these are the type of workouts that carly does really well she did well last year in the in murph you know on her debut year um she this past year has has become so much more of an intense athlete very strong short range of motion for these the the pull-ups of push-ups on the air squats so that right there is where she was able to really kind of make up that distance on sam pass her up and then we have to see what it's going to look like on the final run and like you said she was here last year she did this event she was fourth last year in this event that's that's got to give you a lot of confidence there you know it's it's just you can't talk enough about experience and especially when you've done the exact event and you get to do it again sheila barton is back on the rig and she's a woman who did not do this event last year and she's trying to score some points and move herself at the leaderboard barton is towards the bottom in 34th overall right now [Applause] the wall ball event that short sprint shipper in at the ranch just did her in with 50 wall balls she just wasn't able to keep up your top three were in the middle of your screen towards the right catherine davis daughter is chasing down carly matthews matthews is your leader david's daughter sits in second and carrie pierce is also in the top three sam briggs had the lead for a while then these three women just crept up on the on her and now find themselves out front here [Applause] catching david's daughter you know the unexpected win last year she's a very smart athlete and she's even smarter this year training with coach ben bergeron she does a lot of things outside of the box they they go and they do a lot of different style events workouts she uses her fitness but there's something she knows and that's her pacing and that's appropriate timing and in a workout like this it's very important to know your speed and to know how you want to bring this up you want to talk about just a changed athlete catherine davis daughter she went from finishing 30th in 2012 24 to 2013. then she misses the games and a year later comes backs and comes back and wins wind surprised herself so now given that much more confidence i'm so anxious to see how this all plays out this whole week in this long event this long games being five days long worth of competition worth of events and just her able to see with that cop with that confidence what she can do that's your leader carlene matthews samantha briggs did have the lead for quite a while in this event but carlene matthews carrie pierce and catherine david's daughter were able to catch up and pass the woman who won this event last year i think the point here is just what we were speaking to before this even started how its partition makes a difference last year being the big sets one time at the pull-up bar one time that's what gave sam the benefit last year he's a stronger athlete for that sort of that sort of a setup yeah but break it up and it evens the playing field a little bit more for these other athletes that have a little bit more speed and and strength in the shorter in the shorter chunks thor's looking a little fatigued there yeah i mean if we if he caught her to her squat it's even you know it's even deteriorating even more so that this is just not a workout that's built for yeah i think mentally too bill that's what i wanted like it's hard not to remember those pictures that we replay over and over you know on the screen and she probably replays just as bad images in her own head those are two of your leaders carlene matthews is on the right captain david's daughter on the left matthew's first of the air squad but david's daughter keeping up a nice pace here now they still have that long one mile run shawn so what i love to see here for katrin is she's she's regulating that pace she's spicy there carlene almost was looking a little bit more timid or a little more hesitant [Applause] curry pierce is off on the run as is carlene matthews sheila barton is also catching up with them she's about ready to start her running out catherine david's daughter on that final run as well so perry pierce the former university of michigan gymnast leads carlene matthews [Music] who's making her second appearance at the crossfit game she finished 36 last year and katherine david's daughter this is huge for her because right now david's daughter sits in 10th place overall and just about every woman she is chasing in the overall standings is still on the field last year captain took 12th in this event and was still able to take that first so yes this would be huge now her her squats she really picked up the tempo in those squats to get right up there with uh with carlene i'm wondering if the strategy for carlene is let me just make my way through this rest up a little bit so that i can really put the pedal to the metal on the run pierce is out front behind her is kathryn davidson who managed to pass carlene matthews on the steps which is pretty difficult to do we don't typically think of catching david's daughter as a runner but the thing is she really did go out strong on that first mile and i was impressed a little surprised to see her out there with the runners that we typically think of as runners and she was she did just fine to even get through that portion so you know she's done she's done some work in the off season samantha briggs is off on the run as well she will stop to get some water and if there's a woman who can make up that gap it's samantha briggs and then two women out of the pacific region carl webb and alethia boone joining samantha briggs and carl webb has passed samantha briggs as they head up the stairs and out of the soccer stadium on this final one-mile run and what a huge difference this run is already beginning for car webb as opposed to last year when we saw her i mean literally finished not knowing where the heck she was i mean her head was all over the place she was that smashed by the run by the elements and she looks great right now you have to wonder what the effects are going to be after this one for briggs the usual suspects lead this thing samantha briggs won the event last year she's on the run alithea boone finished second she's on the run carlene matthews finished fourth last year carrie pierce finished fifth in this event carrie pierce like you said not only a rookie last year but only had been training in crossfit for six months she's one of these newer athletes that just always is listening to her coach what does her coach want to tell her i guarantee her coach told her a lot about last year's murph event and this one leading into it annie thor started closing out round number five as is tia toomey these are two of the women who did not do well on this event last year theirs is hoping for something in the middle of the pack survive this event and then move on to the rest of the competition toomey is your overall leader but only by 16 points over rookie to nail reid but this is the event leader that's carrie pierce who's trying to hold off catherine and david's daughter and carlene matthews and sean on that first mile these women were coming in about seven minutes seven minutes thirty look where we got right now time wise 31 minutes so it looks to me that right out of the gate we're going to have times that we're better in last year's best time last year belonged to samantha briggs that was 39 minutes 10.1 seconds [Applause] sarah sigma's honor the woman who finished in third place in 2015 in her rookie year has started her run she's on the bottom right of your screen cesaro sigma's daughter finished ninth in this event last year a similar result today would certainly serve her well and you know it it's not that sarah sigma's daughter it's not that sam briggs is any less fit is that the other girls are that much fitter they're that much better they attack this murph this year a lot better than they did last year [Music] that's the 32 minute mark and again last year these women did this event in the middle of the day around 1 p.m pacific time we started earlier 7 a.m pacific time here in carson california the temperature around 70 degrees at the time but it is certainly uh starting to get a little hotter here as carrie pierce makes the turn heads back towards the soccer stadium david's daughter is in second and it's carly matthews in third annie thor stutter going to the water water has been made available on the field for all the athletes cooling herself off and now she is out on the run so annie thora's daughter if she can keep this spot she's gonna be very happy with this much better i will say i don't like to see exact same pictures and she did that last year pouring the water in her head i just just go for the running you're good but no off to a much better i mean this this just looking at her demeanor looking at her run this looks like her she's still in it as much as this probably took its toll on her just like the other athletes she's still in the game and she still is definitely in a better position than she was last year and of course everybody's going to look tired at this point in the event but last year annie thorsander was stumbling she had her hands on her knees she had some heat problems that she was dealing with throughout the back half of the event sandra pacelli is on the bottom right she came in in sixth place overall and she is falling behind many of the women who are on the final one-mile run [Music] but carrie pierce continues the lead looking for her first career event win at the crossfit games her prior best finish was a second place finish last year in the soccer chipper pierced with a pretty good lead over catherine david's daughter but david's outer certainly not making it easy on carrie pierce and david's out there starting to separate herself from carlene matthews just so impressive catherine davis daughter i really am impressed with her this year coming in into this event i did not expect to see her doing so well and looking so relaxed she looks fresh she doesn't look as fatigued as some of the other athletes but look what she's done though over the past year you came out moved to boston so she could be close with with ben bergeron our coach and you know i mean ben is a crossfit purist so if you're gonna have anyone that's gonna do well at a classic crossfit workout you can have someone like that the other thing she did this year in training is really dialed in her nutrition her diet and she really got that under control she works with a nutritionist and so that opinion is another huge component to your game alessandra pacelli is off on the run and she is trying to hold off catherine davidson among some other women coming in in sixth place overall and katherine david's daughter is going to pick up some valuable points on pacelli horizontal and sigma's daughter if she can keep her second place position right now and lock up 94 points in this event [Applause] the leaders making the turn and they'll be coming back into the stadium and a very good chance that terry pierce if she keeps this pace is going to beat samantha briggs time from last year 39 minutes 10.1 seconds again same amount of reps but partitioned differently in 2015. david's outer still sits in second followed [Applause] matthews finished fourth in murf last year looking to improve that by one spot catherine david's daughter finished 12th and she's looking to move all the way up to second place in this event in 2016. [Applause] kevin's in a great spot athletically right now just having having having the leader right in front of you and you you get to pick when you want to pass him really puts pierce in a in a very defensive position kerry pierce is watching her lead slowly shrink it's kathryn davis daughter starting to pick up some ground here and now down the steps now this is where pierce has the advantage because obviously david saunders not going to be able to pass her on this leg but get ready for a sprint down the field between these two athletes this is where it gets exciting pierce and davidson are on the field together pierce has the lead and david's daughter is a little bit taller but it looks like carrie pierce is gonna be able to hold off the 2015 fittest woman on earth and gary pierce will get her first career event win at the crossfit games as she takes murth what a performance that was an awesome foot race at the end but very impressive carrie pierce harley matthews certainly is consistent fourth in worth last year she'll finish third this year david's daughter finished second matthews will pick up 88 extremely valuable points and she's going to move up the leaderboard as will that woman carrie pierce first career event win she came in in 20 first place overall and here comes samantha briggs but it wasn't another first like we were expecting uh things changed a little bit for sam there with the other the other athletes but still a top five performance samantha bridge is gonna beat her time from last year by a sizable margin briggs comes in 37 minutes 43.18 seconds and another woman who did extremely well in this event last year kristen holta she was third she'll be sixth in 2016. make that fifth with a time of 37 minutes 57.95 seconds and this is big sheila barton who had a tough start on wednesday spoke to her at the end of the day in a rowless and said she's looking forward to getting back here to carson and facing some movements that she knows she's good at and pull-ups and push-ups are surely one of them so sheila martin coming across the finish line sixth place for barton 38 minutes 20.84 seconds christie arimo the rookie set to come across the finish line and here comes carl webb and this is a much different scene and a much better scene for carl webb look at the smile on her face as she conquers some demons with that finish eighth place in murf just a year after suffering heat exhaustion and passing out at the end of this event alethea boone is in her trademark somersault across the finish line and now annie thor's daughter who does look fatigued but still looks pretty good compared to what happened last year and this would be a good result for her if she could just stay in the middle of the path and these athletes with annie she knows this stuff she she knows the experience has the experience that if it's going to be a workout that is or an event that's not in your wheelhouse it's about damage control this guy you just have to do okay in this make it through it the good thing for any is there's nobody around her so there's really no need to push it if she would get herself into trouble if she had a foot race like we saw with pierce and david's daughter but for annie if she can just hang here and kind of watch her position there's no need to push it too much and plenty of events to go for randy thorussata she comes in with 12 career event wins before this year at the crossfit game so she can do damage in the games anna tonicliff is ahead of your overall leader tia toomey who is trying to now do damage control as many of the women who are right behind her in the overall standings have already finished she did not have much of a lead onto the reed or samantha briggs and sarah sigma's daughter is one of the women who's trying to catch up with tia tumi and she is going to do herself a favor as she is set to come across the finish line and sarah sigma's daughter not as good as last year but in the big picture in the competition this year this will be a great finish for her sigma's daughter will come across in 11th place in the event we've had a couple more women finished caroline reason tebow finished in 10th that was after alethia boone and now sarah sigma's daughter is across 40 minutes 31.08 seconds [Applause] and now more women inside the cocker stadium emily bridgers is in china cho has finished [Music] [Applause] [Music] jury helga daughters across the finish line alexis johnson just finished up andy thorstotter into the stadium to neil reed the rookie who came in in second place overall finish up and now here's overall leader tia toomey who is going to fall down the leaderboard as there's a very good chance that samantha briggs could take over the top spot leaderboard it's only friday and last year we didn't even talk much about toomey she crept up in the second place taking the second overall and didn't place very well here so yeah while it seems you know not great for today where she's gonna probably finish up today there's still plenty more events to go and toomey is a definitely a stronger uh mentally and physical athlete than we saw last year tia tully is across the finish line and annie thora's daughter is definitely going to improve on her finish last year in this event she was 33rd in 2015 and almost passed out and another former champion camila blonde bazinet and the yellow shirt is right behind her camila block bazzanet won the 2014 rebound crossing games then rookie taser for savage in the blue pants now passing and he throws daughter on the steps well that's just it you know where they're placing in this event i think is it's important it is but for some of these athletes it's even more important the condition they're finishing this event in for the rest of the events for today tomorrow annie thoreson saw those two women pass her and now she has kicked it into another gear as she tries to catch up with taser perception and camila block bazzanet as we have a foot race towards the finish line and camila block basin a is going to get the best of that one ahead of taser for savage but annie thor's daughter mentally for her this is a victory sure is she that was the foot race i didn't want to see for her that was the push that her body she didn't want either but that mentally she got through murph and she is painful as she looks like the pain she's in it's better than last year lauren fisher was across christy atkins it's a cross as well annie thor's daughter stripping that vest and there's candace wagner the woman who is in the lead for much of the first one mile run and now sandra pacelli getting set to cross the finish line wagner finishes 27 so pacelli will come in in 28th place 43 minutes 36.03 seconds and jen smith has made it through the pull-ups push-ups and air squats all 600 reps she walked a mile to start and she's going to try to hustle through this final mile there's a 55-minute time cap so there is a chance that jen smith on a bad wheel could get in inside the time count that's not just all heart but there is so many people out there that can't get through this workout healthy in the time that jim smith has already done this so it just goes to show the level of fitness that these women really are at and jen smith just keep pushing girl stacy tovar is coming across the finish line and you would think with an injury that jen smith would be dead last she's not that's the woman who currently is behind jen smith and that is meg reardon another games rookie but very often the most impressive performances we see at the crossfit games are not from the athletes that win it's from the athletes that are battling some sort of adversity some sort of injury we've seen it throughout the years and if jen smith can get back inside the soccer stadium this crowd is going to erupt and she has 10 minutes to do it he just took the words right out of my mouth it's just such a gutsy performance and people love that people love the the winner but they cheer even louder for the underdog that they know has has something affecting them that they're the hardship michelle nathan is coming across the finish line [Applause] she will finish 31st so a handful of women still have not come across the finish line and now two more women finishing up that's carlene fuhrer and justine b fuhrer was first she'll finish 30 seconds justine beath will finish 33rd beat in the yellow shirt fuhrer just stripping off her vest marco alvarez being the great sportsman that she is she's helping her out to get that best off rebecca voigt who has been to the crossfit games nine times she's 35 years old she's the oldest competitor in the field but what a career that woman has had very wise she's just she knows her body she knows her age she knows where she's at and it might look like oh she looks so relaxed she knows it's a long competition she knows her body she's not looking to have any issue you know making it through the weekend she wants to get through them all it's not just about murph becca boyd's best finish at the crossing games was in 2011 she was on the podium when she finished in third place 55-minute time cap here on murph the 2016 version and meg reardon passing jen smith on the run so now jen smith is in last place eight minutes to go to finish up and still managing to smile here and for those of you who may be new to this sport i know i'm supposed to be impartial not supposed to be cheering for anything but i want to see jen smith get back in this soccer stadium so you can hear the ovation that she's going to receive from this crowd as becca voigt descends down the stairs she's back on the field she'll close out her event inside the 55-minute time cap only individual to compete at the crossfit games nine times and it is so impressive at 35 years old there's been you know speculation is there going to be a master's division next year at 35 if there is it doesn't matter you might be looking at your winner well she won't go there sean she won't do it she's going to go for the for the women's division every year you that we preview the california regional she never gets the attention that she deserves it's because there's so many heavy hitters in northern california and southern california that you forget becca voight but the most consistent athlete out there yeah that that is she will not you don't pick her to win any event she will always be in the mix in every event she's just so consistent in everything that they throw out no big weakness there's nothing really takes her out this is the remaining drama taking place here in murf as the majority of the field has come across the finish line jen smith is on her final mile run she is obviously walking that because of an injury that she suffered on wednesday another woman still on the run is emily abbott this is one of those events that emily abbott was just trying to survive she finished eighth at the crossfit games last year that's a career best finish for her emily abbott likes to just throw you know throw weight around she'll yeah she is about grunt work she'll get an opportunity to do that later on we don't know how many events remain for these women this is the fifth one but we do know they have the rest of today they have saturday and sunday this is also the first time in crossfit games history that we've had five straight days of competition we've had off-site events on wednesday in the past but then thursday was purely a rest day they stuck them in the water in thursday and made them to a 500 meter swim i mean it was a light day but still usually that's a day dedicated to rest i just love that they mixed it up people were getting a little i don't want to say too comfortable but they were used to the schedule all right i swim on wednesday they just my coach and i were going to talk on thursday there's nothing wrong with that because over a couple years they just got accustomed to it so you expect it so i love the little monkey wrench keep them on their toes train for the unknown unknowable you don't that that means anything goes and it's i don't think it was a physical attack on them having to do the swim on thursday it was a mental attack they still had to mentally get up they had to mentally prepare they had to mentally do well so that it was the mental aspect that was thrown into that meg reardon is getting set to come across the finish line [Applause] reardon the games rookie out of the atlantic regional where she finished third won the final event that helped her get here to carson california and emily abbott now climbing down the steps as we have left we have less than five minutes to go before we hit that 55-minute time cap and emily abbott this is our third consecutive game she took eight last year very impressive finish for her doesn't get a lot of you know a lot of credit doesn't get a lot of screen time but very impressive with last year's given how hard last year's games was emily abbott one of three women who are still on the run she's about to finish up the other two are whitney capalucci and jen smith 55-minute time cap and emily abbott is done whitney capalucci was the woman who was behind jen smith i've misidentified her as meg reardon but it was whitney cavallucci who was behind jen smith and now kappaluchi the only healthy woman well not too healthy she actually recently suffered a hamstring strain so not exactly sure you know if if that's playing a part in any of this or in the pacing that she's doing here on the run the only woman not walking i'll revise that statement i think that's something to talk about though the these athletes are training at the highest level coming into competition they're not majority of them are not coming in here feeling 100 they are banged up there's little tweaks there's little nags there's things that they're coming in with and so unfortunately that's just kind of luck of how it goes but yeah some of these athletes do have little things they don't always want to share it with everybody either you know one of the things that with jen smith you have to think we have a very long week for these athletes the question is going to be thrown in jen okay should you have even done this should you keep pushing as hard as you're pushing right now or i mean are you planning to withdraw is this going to make your your your injury worse is it going to make you know is it going to is it going to benefit you to keep on pushing and this is where the athlete part starts to step in you can you can talk strategy all you want but at some point you're going to be sitting in the room by yourself and thinking did i do what i needed to do or am i going to feel okay with this and and with jyn she's being the athlete she's like i'm gonna push what i have because that's what i'm here to do i love that she's doing that she missed out going to the games past two years with near mart like just skip with the skin of her teeth missed it and was on the demo team she's been here apart so close to the on the demo team she has her opportunity here go for it and i you know one other thing i'll say about this is the difference will be if you're putting yourself at risk to be in the top then okay maybe be a little bit more cautious if you need to kind of play with that but right now i mean she's already known she had issues on the first run issues on the deadlift you know what you gotta go and do what you're gonna do because she has to make herself feel good with her performance here so if she's gonna be in the bottom half then you know what go out with the bang this is when you have fun remember julie fouche you have fun with it this is when you just keep going you do what you can and you see where can my fitness take me when something like this comes up and unexpected you know i'm a proponent for go big or go home that's that's the way i like to ride my life that's why we love whitney cavalucci coming across the finish line that means that jen smith on the bottom right of your screen is the only woman left on the course and she is getting close to making the turn into the soccer stadium here and we have a minute and six seconds to go before we hit the time cap so jen smith looks like she's gonna make it at least inside the confines of the soccer stadium probably not across the finish line but the crowd here in the soccer stadium a lot of them are on their feet awaiting her arrival [Music] as we have 45 seconds to go before we hit the time cap we want her to at least get the ovation and get lisa and she deserves it cheers from the fans jen smith about to make her way into the soccer stadium 30 seconds before we hit the time cap and she is getting the salute from the crowd that she deserves that is determination right there open those arms across the right on top of that crossfit banner on the leaderboard jen smith is not going to get any points for this event but right now the way this crowd is saluting her i don't think she cares and you know the impressive thing sean three zeros and she still is not in the bottom of the leaderboard she is not in last place just a testament to the fitness of jen smith and probably a result again on the leaderboard that she'd want to forget but certainly not an experience that she's ever going to forget but here are your top three women in the 2016 version of murph it's carrie pierce holding off catherine david's daughter and then carlene matthews who finished fourth last year finishes in third it started the same way as we did last year katniss wagner was out early but as we also saw last year the woman who went out first wasn't necessarily the woman who won the event typically what happens is that and it was sam briggs though the surprise to us she was out to the early lead once they got back into the soccer stadium that was that was not a surprise she was nice and relaxed through her first couple rounds but what was the surprise is all the other athens who caught up to her and then passed her like carlene matthews right here it was a race a battle between carlene matthew catherine david's daughter and carrie pierce on the final round to see who was going to get out for the last run right there is where carrie fierce past carlene matthews got out on the run first and then it was carrie pierce who kept that lead all the way until the end she had the pressure of catching david's daughter through that final leg outside the stadium but once they got into the stadium we knew it was going to be a foot race but carrie pierce had enough in the tank to run away with it and get the victory in the first place the carrie pierce gets the event win her first career event win at the crossfit games but the crowd here at the step-up center is still cheering why because that woman clock we did she's gonna finish we all have those athletes in the box to do that they say i'm finishing this and go right ahead you keep moving [Applause] let's send it down to nikki brazier who is with your event winner [Applause] eat carrie pierce on the top of this event we have seen you excel in so many gymnastics movements in your short crossfit career but we have never seen an engine on you like this before where did that come from thanks i just came from a lot of hard work throughout this last year i've been doing more endurance type workouts working more on my running my coach made me do murph last week with a part of it with a 35 pound sandbag running around in a 90 degree weather in new york city with with my vest from last year i had some stairs incorporated in it so i knew that this would be you know a little bit easier than that so that's what helped me push through to the end congratulations thank you so much thank you carrie pierce her first career event win at the crossfit games and that'll earn her 100 points and katherine davidson the defending champion what an improvement for her this year she finishes in second carlene matthews improves by one spot she'll finish in third and then samantha briggs is fourth sarah sigma's daughter is 11th good finish for her rookie to neil reid who is in second place overall coming into this event finishes in 16th and your overall leader tia toomey is in 18th former champions camila block bazzanet finishes 22nd annie thorstadter improves on last year more importantly stays healthy she finishes 24th and then the woman who got the loudest ovation of them all jen smith gets time capped the men are up next and they are on the field and they are facing the exact same test a one mile run then five rounds of 20 pull-ups 40 push-ups and 60 squats and then a final one-mile run and matt fraser comes in as the overall leader but not by much trying to hold off brett fakowski who is just 14 points behind him jorvan goomanson the youngster out of iceland right behind the two men in front of your screen hummus and won this event in 2015 [Music] just like that the men take off on their one mile run and last year it was joe scally who jumped out to an early lead on the run and we basically never heard from him again so just like we saw with the women the guy who goes out first is not necessarily the man who is going to win this event what was impressive is if you look at the very front we had some athletes that know what's going on we had cole sager that ran to the front we had josh bridges now josh bridges in a little bit of redemption year this year you know since he wasn't here last year getting himself up to the front to set that pace if anyone wants to attack it's going to be josh bridges josh bridges was a man who did not take on this event last year and you know he's been looking forward to going through this event but being a former seal you know that he has done this plenty of times and this is one of the this is one of the events that if we did have someone that needed to grind josh bridges is obviously going to do well here but we have a handful of guys that we need to look at and right at the top of the leaderboard we have to start with matt fraser i mean already in the lead he's come into his whole crossfit career with olympic lifting background but has become this insane endurance athlete i mean he was second in this event last year won the run this year and here he is up at the front of the pack and this is already leading the leaderboard you know and going into this and going into friday so just insane motor on this kid and if if anyone is set up to really i mean he's trying to take a second he got really upset at me last time when i said that he was the uh the bridesmaid and never the bride so he's gonna prove me wrong on this one hopefully well we saw an aromas i mean he made a statement he didn't just win the 7k he blew the competition out of the water you know what i love though is that josh bridges was leading the pack in that 7k and i like seeing him hold back just a little bit here because bridges has the advantage with his short frame on the gymnastic movements when they come here for the pull-ups and so i think it's a really wise move of him to hold back just a little bit really wise and push it where he has maybe maybe a little bit of an advantage over matt that's travis mayer who is out front early here on this initial one mile run rob forte behind him he's in the light top josh bridges in that group jacob hebner with no shirt on underneath his vest he was in that pack that's following travis mayer who is your leader here in this initial one-mile run travis is having an amazing start to his crossfit career right now italy's coming up with all the events we have he's never sat this high and i know he was struggling a little bit in the regional competition man is he making just a statement he looks great matt fraser among that group right next to josh bridges the two of them were right next to each other on that 7k trail run and i'm sure bridges is looking to his right and saying you got to be kidding me you again and now rob forte moves himself into the lead on this one mile run but still plenty of work that needs to be done rob forte is a guy who's traditionally done well in these longer events remember a couple years ago he won that triple three event travis mayer making the turn bridges making the turn alex anderson making the turn there's noah olsen jorvin goobinson defending champ ben smith jacob hefner making the turn back towards the soccer stadium matt fraser currently sits in fourth place on this run fraser had an outstanding finish last year he was second last year in murf these vests are made by 511 tactical they are a real tactical company that they that are made for tactical operators so the athletes are using the best of the best equipment the plate the steel plate that goes inside of these goes here catherine david's daughter second in that event and the reigning fitness woman on earth was generous enough to loan me hers one thing you might see the men take advantage of when they finish the race there's a feature for operators in case they catch on fire fall in the water it's a quick pull emergency release so if the athletes pull this boom it's an eject button hopefully they don't need to do that before the end of the event thank you rowan i'm sure a lot of athletes not only want to take that thing off but also plant it into the stands and never deal with it again after this [Music] event rob forte continues the lead he finished 24th and murph last year at a time of 48 minutes 31.5 seconds the five-minute mark on this initial one-mile run forte continues to leave matt fraser in the white shirt and sunglasses is behind him alex anderson in the gray josh bridges in the headband and sunglasses towards the front so not nearly the margin that we saw with the women as all the men staying pretty much even here on this one-mile run what we aren't seeing this year that we saw last year as anyone running out to the front you know trying to get that 15 minutes of fame you know leading the pack being the first one coming in we have a very large group that's all huddling together but there really aren't any newbies in that group these are the veterans that are in the front they know the pace to push they know the temple that they need to run and they know how they need to feel going into all the pull-ups and push-ups and air squats like they have that gap for that last mile they also got to see the women they saw there were some foot races there at the end and they're not gonna they don't want a foot race now if they use the energy now when they need it come back in the soccer stadium at the end the men making the turn to head in to the soccer stadium and get to work on those five rounds of pull-ups push-ups and air squats jacob anderson is your leader his brother alex there's a few men behind him forte's in second followed by matt fraser who now passes forte jordan goodmanson is up there he was in the blue albert dominique larue samuel quant khan porter [Music] with the women we saw a couple make it into the tennis stadium followed by sort of a trickling pack with the men they have managed once again to stay close to each other but it's going to be jacob anderson the first man to the steps jacob anderson i wouldn't pick him as an endurance athlete by any means but he's a very strong pushing athlete you get any kind of handstand push-ups or any sort of gymnastic movement like that he does extremely well so i'm really excited to see i mean he jumped he made a statement by by jumping out to the front and trying to pull these guys in he wants to get to the bar and he wants to get to those reps as soon as he can really try to put those gymnastics to the test that's a good point because the guys are going to do this a little differently that you know the girls maybe broke up those push-ups a little bit more than the guys have to so really there and they can hold onto the pull-ups even more so usually than the women as well so this will be attacked a little bit differently so anybody that has an advantage with the push-up portion of this event is going to do well jacob anderson needs some points he comes in 39th place overall first time at the crossfit games for him he's the fourth member of his family to qualify the game before the games his dad steve won the masters title in 2011 and his brother zach finished 10th of 2013 then of course his brother alex is competing with him here today alex was in the games last year when he finished 13 very fit anderson family there's some pretty good genes running in the household just like you talked about bill his arms look at that i mean he knows where he's what he's doing he knows his his chunks he's going to hit and look how he's aggressive with that push jacob anderson on the left bjorgen carl boomenson who made a statement with the win in this event last year is on the right he's in the blue shirt on his knees taking a break in his first round of push-ups and matt fraser is keeping pace with the leaders frazier second in this event last year behind jordan carl goodson josh bridges is your leader he's the first man on to that initial round of 60 air squats now this is where we talked about him josh being in a great position for this particular workout if he could keep with everyone on the run and he's dealt with wrecking obviously being in the military he's dealt with being able to carry weights while you're doing kind of movements and running but now we're in range of motion movements so pull-ups shorter levers he's going to be able to move faster push-ups shorter levels he's going to be able to move faster and air squats same thing plus he has that mindset he will push these and not stop i i don't expect to see a lot of breaks with uh there he is mr dartanian himself with that little uh mustache and beard he's got going on um i expect him to see him move aggressively through all of these reps he's going to push the pace here he also has the mentality he has that that mindset that this stoic look you're going to see this the whole time even if he's in pain he was a seal he knows how how you act how you carry yourself and he's going to keep that that look to him i don't expect that to change even if he is in pain you won't see it bridge is done with round one and back for round two and if you read the description that we had just had up on the screen i'm sure that would have motivated him as well he doesn't like to be told things like he's the oldest and the shortest he's gonna he's gonna use that as fire had he seen it sorry josh hey [Music] and right now the fact is that josh bridges is your leader here in mers looking to go unbroken on the second round of 20 pull-ups matt fraser now back to the pull-up bar frazier coming in with the overall lead by 14 points over brett fakowski [Music] fraser's history has been well documented here at the crossfit games this is his third appearance he's finished second both times he is on a mission to get himself to the top of the podium here in 2016 and he is closing out his second round of 20 pull-ups [Music] fraser is done and he will join josh bridges on the second round of 40 push-ups the women were 14 pounds on that weight best of men have 20 pounds strapped to them one of the nice things you can see right where that shade line is if you're in the shade that's a huge advantage when you're sitting in the sun even though we're not in the heat of the day right now but the sun just beats on you and the sun on the grass that that humidity that that that humid feeling that's a huge difference so any of these athletes right here like jacob starts in his arm down in the white and the white shirt he has to deal with the heat bridges does not have to deal with the heat well he was the first one back he had the choice of what lane to go to he chose that lane because he was the first back it was the closest but maybe the wiser decision would have been to hop a few lanes over stay in the shade keep your body temp down a little bit have we seen in events like this where it's first person in gets to pick usually everyone just goes right to the middle and fans out from there but that's a great point about half the field is shaded right now and josh bridges is one of the men who is lucky enough or possibly smart enough and that's in that shade right that's experience this is jacob's first time so he just he wanted to get to the bar and do what he knows to do and he kind of went moth to the light on that one sometimes the first thing you think oh that's that seems the best isn't always we talk about home run potential whenever we mentioned josh bridges this is a guy who usually wins events and normally wins them in the tennis stadium when we turn on the lights and compete at night there but josh bridges comes into the crossing games as there were seven career event wins i am standing on that line you're speaking of between the sun and the shade and i can verify that the difference in temperature is at least six degrees we talked to the head medical earlier and he told me during the women's race earlier over the course of the hour that's the exact amount the temperature raised with six degrees over the course of the event but from the sun to the shade as bill said is a phenomenal difference in the shade still even got wet do on the ground thanks ro jacob anderson continuing to work through his second round of air squats one of the athletes obviously in the sun as josh bridges will now go back for round number three and it begins with 20 more pull-ups josh looks phenomenal he's just so impressive and i honestly want to know and this is something i need to ask him and i apologize for not having this information for you guys but i wonder how many times he's actually done murph in his crossfit career being with being you know uh uh in the military being in the neighbor being around that seal mentality and that that seal group how many times has he done this even just on his own because he looks extremely comfortable he well he is extremely comfortable and that's the thing when he comes out in any competition you know missing the games last year like it's been a while but when he's here in competition he always looks that good bridges moving back to the push-ups you saw matt frazier walking back to the rig to start his third round and bjorg and goomanson is trying to stay up towards the front as well this is the man who won this event last year and finished third behind ben smith and matt frazier and last year he held just a great tempo he wasn't out in the front right away slowly just crept his way past everyone just just consistent and with with with goodmans and he he really shows zero expression on his face i think whether he's winning when he you know when he did win when he and when he wasn't doing as well and some of the other events he didn't see any special change so you can't go by facial expression is he having a hard time or not he just moves he's very mechanical jordan is back to the pull-up bar for round number three travis williams this is a guy who last year admitted that as a rookie he didn't really know what he was doing he just between events kind of just sat down and didn't do anything to help his recovery and then we'll just go back and compete again so this is a much more mature athlete and a much more well-rounded athlete as well that's what experience does you don't know you can think you know at home and you can think oh i'm going to do this or that but you really don't know until you get there and then it goes out the window sometimes sometimes you're doing something completely different than everybody else you're like what's that it's it's being in the community it's being in the competition that really helps you to hear you know what works for some doesn't always work for others but gives the options josh bridges continues to lead as we approach the 16-minute mark right next to him is jacob hepner hebner among the top men in this event josh bridges on to round three of those 60 air squats look at how comfortable chest is up nice and tall looks relaxed he has nice range of motion and nice mobility in his hips he just he looks really comfortable in that squat those are your top three athletes left to right josh bridges in second place it's jacob hefner he's in the yellow shorts and then in third in the bottom right of your screen is matt fraser and the more efficient you can be you know when you look that comfort we talk about oh they look comfortable okay what does that mean it means that they're being efficient with their movement it means they're not wasting any extra effort muscles don't have to be engaged to hold them in position that they shouldn't it's just using just enough muscle just enough energy to do what you have to do and what's required well and it's hard to say that josh looks like he's recovering but it looks like he's recovering during these air squats he's breathing great his chest up nice and tall and you got to remember that weight vest is on you if you are if it hangs on you in a weird way it actually does kind of compress your lungs so it makes it difficult to breathe but if he's upright then the weight of the the plates aren't on your chest is more on your shoulder so it's a very comfortable position for him no holding the vest looks a little more labored it's more effort each every squad looks a little bit more taxing despite that noah olsen has moved himself into third place in this event no olson making his third appearance here at the crossing games he's finished eighth both years josh bridges early comes into the event at seventh place overall and many of the men he's chasing he is ahead of right now the only guy who's close-up is matt fraser he's your overall leader [Music] josh bridges looking like he can move his way up the leaderboard here in murf now look at matt's feet his feet were so close together and that's even though he can move through the squat he should be spreading those feet out a little bit wider if you saw earlier with no olson's feet were very wide shortens up the range of motion but it's just a better position unless the only thing i can think of is that he's trying to let the backside relax a little bit and try to make that swapping a little bit more on the quad that was my that was that was my go-to point yes josh bridges will start round four of his push-ups as he once again ripped through those pull-ups and he continues to lead here looking for his eighth career event win at the crossfit games matt fraser is in second fraser finished second last year in murf as well sure matt frazier is getting tired of hearing the word second he told me he was he was rather upset with me the fact that i brought that up and it his mindset and his look is so much more determined this year than i've seen him in previous years and not that he's always been a very competitive a very consummate competitor but he he's on a man he's a man on a mission he looked angry before every event at the regionals and he was he said it's because i am like i wasn't just like it's not like it's like no like i i'm done i'm done with this second face crap i watched him a little bit when he was in aromas and the other athletes talk and there's a social vibe going on between events and things like that not that matt frazier wasn't partaking in that but he was definitely in his own little world and like you said you can tell this guy is on a mission this year we've never seen two years in a row it happened i happened to me 2008 i lost my 10 seconds do you know i was haunted by 10 seconds for 365 days and i got redemption i cannot imagine that second year of training i cannot imagine this past year training being like you got to be kidding me like that close again brent fakowski came into this event in second place overall after the trail run he had to go to the medical tent in aromas because he said he just went out too hard and looks like he's feeling the effects here of murf this is a guy who has a motor so the fact that he's not towards the front i think is a little surprising right now and but i will say this he's a what i've seen with brent is he is a pacing master he will let people get i think he lets people get weighed ahead of them he has his game plan and he really he really competes with blinders on he doesn't want to see where anybody is he does his race he knows exactly where he needs to be and how he needs to be all the way through uh i i we obviously know he's he's great with endurance type events that's not going to be an issue for him but uh i was really anxious to see how he's going to do i want to see how he's going to finish up towards that last round and then into that last run it's not that the other guys don't have a pacing strategy but sometimes you're the episode well i can go a little faster so i will because that person is doing that so the other one's doing this and that's just what can sometimes catch up to you in a longer event like well matt fraser surely learned his lesson last year he didn't take any water out of the field with him this year he's been going to that water early and often and it was made available to the athletes there's some white coolers in the background that you can see those things all have ice and water in them that have been made available to the athletes but yeah last year matt fraser didn't have a single sip of water he's pouring it over his head he's drinking it he's doing everything he can to deal with the elements and during the briefing they were they were talked to by medic and they said you know keep your core temperature down all the things that you can do to help combat any of the the heat out there josh bridges continues to lead he is on his fifth round of pull-ups look at this speed [Music] every single set of pull-ups have been unbroken every single set has been a set of 20. that is insane beautiful jorvin carl goobison meanwhile has moved into fifth place it's the man who won this event last year rubinson sits in fifth place overall [Music] we do not know how many events remain for these men but we do know there's going to be competition the rest of today saturday and sunday josh bridges on to his final set of 40 push-ups look at that speed you put him next to any of these other athletes on any of the movements and his his rep count the speed of his reps is almost two reps for every single one of everybody else well and you can't just say oh well it's just short range of motion for him so he has an advantage he's good he's fast he's a lot of strength in there a lot of power matt fraser has gotten on the bar for his fifth and final set of pull-ups as josh bridges has put a little bit of distance between himself and fraser this could be a painful final mile for these two gentlemen and i think the smart thing is that matt fraser's been taking little sips of water making sure that he's there and i haven't seen that from from bridges anytime the camera's been on him so i don't know but josh has been in the shade the entire time it's true the entire time so he's going to finish going out into the run that'll be the first time he'll see the sun well the first time off of out of the field bridges is your leader he's on the left matt fraser on the right and fraser's done with his 20 pull-ups and he'll join bridges on those push-ups and that water bottle has stayed with him the entire event matt frazier came in with the overall lead 304 total points he was 14 points up on brent fakowski and that margin is going to widen if this holds ben smith meanwhile the defending fitness man on earth has moved into fifth place smith coming in in tenth place overall ben smith i'll tell you a year of training with the title fittest man on earth the champ that confidence is huge for ben smith that's huge just to see him come in to regionals down the regional he looked awesome he was on fire and i love seeing the confidence i just think he just gave him that little more push that he needed to really believe in himself that much more well it's tough i mean you want to you want to think okay do i really deserve that title i mean that's a big title to hold you know especially when there's been virtually one other person tell it for any kind of length of time so that's a tough thing to take but you know that confidence is huge and he's he's such a mellow athlete such a quiet athlete very reserved very nice so it's uh it's going to be a little fire that's why i didn't know how he would handle it any time he gets a uh you know a win it's always like oh yeah thanks you know and so i was like is he gonna do the same thing for the the title and so i'm so glad to see how he's embraced it and the confidence he's bringing to this year's games josh bridges on his final set of 60 air squats and then it's back on to the one mile run meanwhile noah olsen is pushing matt fraser for second place his start was not a good one but his last two events have gone extremely well josh bridges is done and he is on to his second and final one mile run and now both fraser and olsen are virtually tied for second frazier has a handful of reps in the bag ahead of olson josh bridge is adjusting his vest and you mentioned this bill if that thing isn't sitting on your right it's going to have an adverse effect on your breathing yeah and you i mean you don't want to bounce it around you want to have it loosen up to where you can breathe but not so that it's jostling all over the place you want it to become one part of you uh just so you can keep that stride and keep that tempo bridge is up the stairs and then he will exit the soccer stadium on that one-mile loop and he looks like he is well on his way towards his eighth career event win at the crossfit games with fraser and olson right behind him you know they didn't have bridges last year they didn't have him there to push against so this is huge you know bridges didn't know what it felt like here in the stadium to do this but he's getting that opportunity now and it looks like he's gonna be able to celebrate the win there goes matt frazier off on his one-mile run to close out the event and he's trying to chase down that man but the most important thing for matt fraser is that other than josh bridges he's ahead of all the guys that are chasing him on the leaderboard so he's going to widen that lead especially over brent fukowski [Music] this has to be a very comfortable position for josh i mean again we talked about rocking and being in the military and having to carry all the packs and having to carry all of that stuff uh this is a great he's at home he's at home the only thing that you know he could creep in his head was what happened in aromas where he was ahead of by a by a bigger lead fraser in the beginning of that they'll run the 7k but it looks like that that lead here in the mile i don't know if fraser's gonna have enough time to make up that distance in the third man on that final one-mile run [Music] olson finished third last year in murf and looking to do it again here in 2016. i'm impressed you know after seeing those squats i just didn't think he looked very comfortable with his approach what he was doing with the air spots he didn't look as comfortable and efficient but he's a strong kid but okay noah isn't very tall he went with the wider stance it does shorten up the range of motion and the other thing he has in his favor is he's from florida florida's extremely hot and humid right now so this is not this is not a big deal for him temperature wise this is cool this is actually really nice that's the lead that josh bridges has on matt fraser that no olson has yet to even exit the stadium but he is on that run and now jacob hefner is the fourth man on his final run and ben smith is right behind him with just one air squat to go so ben smith who comes into this event in 10th place overall just looking to continue to chip away and move his way up the leaderboard ben smith lasts your tent in mirth scary to think that that guy got even fitter it's amazing with that crossfit stuff it's amazing wise athlete he's out in the shade he has no shirt on definitely lessons were learned last year bjorgan carl goobinson is on the run he's ahead of smith and then alex anderson behind ben smith also taking off on their final one-mile run that is jacob hebner jacob hebner was fifth last year in murf so the same guys doing the same stuff here in 2016. they obviously have have practices a few times they know what they're supposed to do and and more than that they know their body they know how to handle these events they know where to push they don't let the they don't let the race dictate what they're going to be doing they do what they do but the neat thing here you know we said 600 reps is 600 reps but the neat part is we are seeing the usual suspects so while you do mix it up through a curve balloon a couple different athletes come into the mix but it still is the fittest in murf really are still coming out on top and josh bridges continues to lead and he is making the turn and he is on his way back now towards the soccer stadium and he'll be able to pass everybody that's chasing him as those men make their way out to that turning point with josh you saw him he grabbed a water bottle just took a small sip he didn't have water all the way up and down the field and i think this is his experience his military experience a lot of these guys you only have so much water when you're out in the field so you're not you don't even need you're not worried about that you know your body you know when you start when you're going to need a little ship when you need to douse and that's a huge difference when matt frazier was dousing himself all the time you're trying to drink as much water dumping it on his head dumping on his shirt josh bridges just passing matt fraser who's on his way out fraser is the man in second place right now josh bridges is in no hurry he can take his time there's no other heat as long as he stays in front he's going to win this event pick up 100 points bridge is currently seventh place [Music] overall [Applause] hey guys the pace that these guys have used throughout this event is really impressive the strategy that they put in play when they found out the rep scheme especially saw last year a lot of guys especially the ones that finished in the front run that first miles 620 625 this time around almost everyone came in around the seven to seven and a half minute mark so everyone slowed down taking advantage of the fact that all their pull-ups push-ups the squats were broken up they knew they would be able to go faster here and it's showing with some very impressive time we're looking at bridges coming in potentially as much as six minutes ahead of last year's winner thanks sam and last year's winner was the man he just gave a low five to that's jordan carl goobinson and it's looking like josh bridges he's going to pick up yet another event win encouraging his fellow competitors as they head out on that one mile run bridge is looking behind him he's not going to see anything with plants and spectators because matt fraser has yet to make the turn but josh bridges has put together a pretty impressive resume during his career this would be his eighth career event win and at 33 years old this guy's still getting better he's so i don't think that with him it's physically better it's more mentally sound is what he now has he just he's always had he's always been a very confident athlete he's obviously obviously always been a very mentally tough athlete but now he's kind of coming into this position where it's like he feels he owns events not i'm going to do well or i'm going to win i own this event and i'm good i mean look how comedy yeah he's just taken to the sights he high-fives so many people and granted it's always nice when you're beating everybody always it's always easy to be in a good mood and feel great but he has been on a mission since last year when he didn't make it to the games uh we saw him i talked to him at regionals when he was coming in very different demeanor he usually i mean he's always a little joke of a bit of a jokester but very focused on what he needs to do and i know he wants to put it to the metal here yeah he does have that switch that he can flip and then it's go time yeah and you do not want to get in that man's way when he is in that mode josh bridges back inside the tennis stadium i'm sorry the soccer stadium another thing too josh bridges is only one of three athletes on both the male and the female side that has kids and as a mom like i understand contraining and all that being pulled into different directions so impressive too to add just another layer to his you know his life matt frazier trying to hang on to second place finished second last year in this event looking like it's going to happen again in 2016 and josh bridges is going to win this thing going away yeah look how relaxed [Music] that is incredible fitness right there josh bridges we're used to seeing him smash events in the tennessee that is his playground and he's gonna pick up yet another win but this time in the soccer stadium josh bridges eighth career event win as he takes murf there it is there's that how there's the josh bridges how [Music] [Applause] 34 minutes 38.83 seconds for josh bridges and 100 points and matt fraser is going to widen his lead on the men immediately behind him in second and third place overall that would be brent fakowski who came in in second place he was 14 points back a fraser and alex vigno who is 64 points back matt fraser through five events is going to be sitting very pretty on top of the overall leaderboard you know the water the water for him was key and not only i mean obviously he's training and what he's done but he looks great that water cooled him down this is a completely different event this year than last year even though he was second last year it's okay it's just the way they're finishing and it the rest of the competition matt fraser hearing it from the crowd as he will finish in second place and this is the unbelievable thing for me is noah olsen sits in third place he's back inside the soccer stadium but matt fraser the longest events that we've seen so far in the games has barely looked winded yeah yeah i know he he's he's gaining the title of endurance athlete which i think is a little odd a little strange for him that's not he does not look like an endurance athlete but man if that you know some of that's just the built-in that you don't always if he's always just going with the barbell that's just what you look at but the natural talent what he's always probably had there and just didn't tap into and he is now so i'm so impressed though with merv in general overall men's side women's side these athletes how they're finishing with pep in their step they are going to go into the rest of today tomorrow in a much different condition than they did last year i love this love seeing the improvement in their fitness noah olsen is going to empty the tank and sprint his way across the finish line and he will finish third for the second straight year in mirth [Applause] that's over two minutes faster than his time was last year here comes jacob hefner and hefner another man who did well last year hector is going to improve on his finish in 2015 he was sixth last year he will be fourth in 2016. like i said tony the same characters same character we're only missing one so far they haven't seen come in with carl van grove there he is it's like the same old party dave you want us to do it again all right it is amazing you give you throw a challenge at these guys and you have them do it a year later the improvement overall from everybody is almost unbelievable it's insane but there's something more that you get from a competition they they got more fit here forte has just passed ben smith and this is now where points become extremely valuable and it's gonna be a race to the finish line between rob forte and ben smith and ben smith where did that come from whoa turn on the jets smith blowing by rob forte [Applause] years of competing at the games right there you don't let any places get away from you ben smith will finish sixth rob forte will finish seventh and if this thing gets really close on sunday remember that we'll be talking about it seven men have completed murph no one did it faster than josh bridges 34 minutes 38.83 seconds there's a 55 minute time cap alex anderson [Applause] and patrick velder is in right behind alex anderson so the man we have yet to see was the man who sat in second place overall coming into this event that is brent fakowski he only trailed matt frazier by 14 points that is certainly going to change after this there's ben stoneburg as scott panchik comes across the finish line patrick 14th in 2015 he'll finish 10th in 2016 with a time of 39 minutes 18.62 seconds and now ben stoneburg is across the finish line [Applause] jacob anderson the second anderson brother to get across the finish line anderson will be 12th stoneburn finished 11th [Applause] and that is christian lucero the game's rookie from the california regional great result for him now more men entering the soccer stadium here's they are closing out events number five murph and that is brent fukowski who is still on the run so brent is going to plummet down the leaderboard now it's just a matter of how far he's got to start passing some people and do some damage control here and this just shocks me of anyone that i thought was going to really push the pace and then i was excited to see onward was going to be brent uh especially after how he did in the you know the 7k run and and uh the other events yesterday i i just was really i was waiting to see him get a little crazy and you know they call him the professor because he's a very meticulous very you know kind of scientific pace pacer uh maybe something's going on right now maybe this is uh i wouldn't have thought he would have paced this hard you know or maybe it's he's a rookie and this is the third day and so it is a little bit of a different push that you you don't always get at home push-ups probably seem to beat him up a little bit more than it did the other guys and so maybe the pacing was a bit off well he has a longer you know we talk we talk about josh bridges and the short levers he's got the longer level so you know of course the gymnastic movements are going to be they're going to take longer um but i i was expecting to see a little bit more on the run from him it'll be interesting to see if he's surprised with this performance or if this you know sometimes we get we're more shocked than the athletes are like no no where i thought i was going to be that was the plan i knew i could really damage myself if i went too hard in it more men have finished meanwhile brent bukowski is trying to pass khan porter and pick up a couple more points here logan collins adrian wudweiler paul sager travis williams gary hellmuth samuel quandt albert dominique larouche all getting across the finish line now 22 men have finished this event marcus philly is getting set to come across the finish line as brent fakowski has passed con porter making his way back into the soccer stadium i mean he looks great on the run here he doesn't look fatigued i didn't get a chance to see him too much while he was on the field but i'm going to say it was a range of motion issue and remember this is a guy in bradfordowski who was in the medical tent after the first event in aromas so he had his issues but looked like he dealt with him just fine but maybe some lingering effects from what he felt after that 7k trail [Music] [Applause] 43 minutes about gone in this event brent fakowski now in damage control mode as 26 men have come across the finish line zach carchetti the latest he finished in 26th place with a time of 42 minutes 57.86 seconds marcus philly lucas hogberg and roy gamboa also across the finish line [Music] and brent fakowski sparing a look over his shoulders to see who's near him and one of the things that we don't really talk about are the events that aren't listed in the event of that is dealing with this overall week dealing with that first date the traveling that they had to do and that's going to dishevel i mean if if you are an athlete that's very very regimented you have your certain ways that you warm up your certain ways of preparing then also that gets swapped around some athletes aren't able to handle that very well i would say that the more meticulous athletes are the ones the more calculated athletes are the ones that are going to have more issues with that where you take someone like josh bridges who that was his entire career was being jostled all over the world and then having to be able to respond garrett fisher getting set to come across the finish line and this is a guy that we haven't seen in the games since he was a rookie in 2013 and finished fifth official will finish 30th in this event with a time of 44 minutes 10.77 [Music] [Applause] and now there's a handful of men out on the course sam dancer among them the man who cleared the deadlift ladder that's rasmus weisbach anderson 31 men across the finish line parker just making the turn on that second one mile run and you want to talk about meticulous athletes of all the people that got their best fitted he took the longest he's a calculated athlete he is he's what you're talking about with everything's calculated out i wondered how he dealt with you know a lot of the athletes not knowing they were going to obviously go to aromas but um they were going to wake up that early and they're saying oh maybe i should have eaten more tuesday they maybe weren't prepped as much for the long duration that it's not about that day oh shoot i have to quick eat more right now it's what you did yesterday and we're not prepared for it does that throw you off and how much does it throw you off and he's even i mean he's on record and said i like training more than i like competing because in training i can play with the different fundamentals and try to make this work and that work and the calculation is is just incredible uh then you actually get into competition and then if you have to kind of put it all to work and that's where he's always kind of had an issue sean sweeney with a tip of the cab to the crowd here as he finishes and his trademark cowboy hat former rodeo competitor he's making his first appearance across the games sweeney coming in in 33rd place with a time of 45 minutes 53.16 seconds lucas parker continues to work his way back to the soccer stadium it's only seven men left on the run lucas parker sam dancer james newbury spencer hendell mitchell cinnamon joseph guests are still on the course here [Music] lucas is about right where he was last year so we saw a lot of the same people were up at the front a lot of the same people are down at the back that is mitchell cinnamon his final descent down the stairs and on the field here and remember this is just one event there are plenty more events to go we don't know how many but last year we certainly saw some athletes who did not do well in this event and event make up points later on in the competition and wind up on the podium well that's one of the that's one of the nice things about this test with the crossfit games is you aren't going to you aren't going to show that you aren't fit because you didn't do very well in one thing we want to look at a very broad spectrum and that's what that's what's happening here they are getting an extremely broad spectrum of events and tests and when you have an opportunity to get 100 points when you have an opportunity to be at the top of where others aren't on the leaderboard that's when you want to take them and that group today that did it last year they did it again in this one there's not many people that like murph and that can do that at that level here comes lucas parker one of the most recognizable athletes in this entire sport and he better be careful because james newberry looking like he's going to chase down parker but parker realized that newberry closing the gap but parker's going to get there first wow he'll fit his 35th and newberry will finish 36th but lucas parker not expecting that the two men congratulate each other as they pushed one another to the finish line here comes spencer hendell who's coming off a career best fifth place finish at the crossfit games last year biggest guy in the field tallest guy heaviest this isn't an event for him that is gonna no advantage really for him there's no shock that two of the three guys left on the floor two the two biggest guys that's spencer handel and sam dancer joseph guesser is the other man who has yet to complete his final one mile run and we have just about six minutes to go now before we hit that 55-minute time cap i talked to spencer uh yesterday a little bit it's cool seeing someone like that that's been around and has seen all the different venues he was really excited to go back to aromas and and the the fact that he is like he he doesn't get flustered but by stuff so even though he didn't finish very well here you know that he's not flustered by it he didn't finish very well in the leaderboard but i'd take a one minute pr in merch absolutely over last year that was a woman yes it was partitioned differently but still in competition given the third day of the third day of competition at the games hey that's that's awesome sam dancer lugging that huge frame down the steps what do his legs feel like right now sam dancer 510 210 pounds former football player at western illinois university played fullback yeah i believe that i would hate to see that guy in full pads running at me at full speed trying to knock me over i'd curl up into the fetal position sam dancer is quite the character and he's a guy who is known more for his power than events like this he was the only man to clear the deadlift ladder into the 2009 throwback event at the ranch when he deadlifted 615 pounds put a slight slate bend in the bar [Applause] sam dancer hearing it from the crowd he is in and now it's just joseph gester who is left out there on his run dancer time of 50 minutes 38.82 seconds and that is joseph gessner and he will get himself across the finish line inside the time cap and that is going to close out the 2016 version of murph for the men played out pretty much like it did last year atop the results but the man who sat at the very top did this for the first time and that's josh bridges who takes the event with a time of 34 minutes 38.8 seconds for the second straight year matt fraser finishes second in murf he was a full minute behind bridges and then noah olsen once again second straight year third in 2015 third in 2016. man look at that just insane pace out of the gate and that actually made me a little nervous i didn't know what these guys were gonna do but man jacob anderson hopped up into the front not too crazy really wanted to get to those movements but then when we got to the movements the push-ups the pull-ups of the air squats and it was all about range of motion and here's one of our shorter athletes showing not only the range of motion in this the power that he has but the speed that he had in every single one of those and into every single one of those movements right after him matt frazier the same type of deal but was very smart this year compared to last year dousing himself with water drinking water all the time having all that water with them all the time but josh bridges dominated this event was confident was comfortable no issue i mean a point where he could high five the entire field on the way back didn't look even didn't look flustered didn't look stressed by any by any fashion imagination at all just so powerful dominated it josh bridges with this trademark celebration as he crosses the finish line and picks up his eighth career event win at the crossfit games [Applause] let's send it down to sam farmer who's with your event winner after you're having to i definitely wanted to do well i feel so yeah i just gave it everything i got and it felt really good to get a victory and certainly as a navy seal you know the history of merv to win it in this environment how much more does this event mean to you oh that's a lot you know i definitely gave my all plus a little extra let's hop in just you know i didn't really want to let anybody else win it so it felt good to get the victory certainly took care of that josh congratulations [Music] josh bridges takes the 2016 version of murf matt fraser beat him by more than a minute on the trail run josh bridges returns the favor here noah olsen for the second straight year will finish third jacob hebner and bjorgevin carl goodson rounding out the top five travis mayer the man who went out front early in that initial one-mile run finishes in 15th brent fakowski who was second overall coming into this event finishes in 28th place he'll fall down the leaderboard and then it was the big guys bringing up the rear and spencer hendell and sam dancer 37th and 38th that's gonna do it for event number five for the individuals the men and the women revisiting murph and it goes much better for everybody perry pierce gets the win for the women josh bridges gets the victory for the men and a lot of happy faces as they got through this thing unscathed our coverage continues here stay with us team of team events three and four are up next here at the stubhub center in carson california [Music] that's true hello everybody i'm pat sherwood welcome to the 2016 reebok crossfit games here at the stubhub center carson california we are in our 10th year of our young sport and the athletes have already completed five events the men and women have done murph already this morning joined at the desk as always by katie martin henniger the 2008 champion and tommy marquez analyst extraordinaire five events down already thus far kind of what's jumped out to you i just think what a way to start off this morning right you know i think uh pier carrie pierce starting out the morning with a great win here but you know jen smith really just struggling to get through this but what an inspiring performance from her uh to start off the morning here on day three i like what you said there looking at murph as a whole it's a new year a new test with a murph variation and i think the athletes really stepped up to the plate we saw them not getting caught off guard strategy-wise bringing towels out for the push-ups watching their watches to kind of time their squats and i think it was evidenced by how well they performed and even though they've done murph the athletes are not finished today by a long shot they still have several events in store for them the next one coming up will be they just finished murph 7-9 a.m this morning at the soccer stadium teams have an event team event number three going on from 10 30 a.m to 2 p.m and then finally after that the individuals will head over to the tennis stadium starting at 3 35 p.m for event number six the squat clean pyramid still some things unknown far more unknown than we do know but thus far what's kind of grabbing your attention well if you go to the games page and you click on the events and workouts description there's a tba just below the squat clean pyramid i'm excited for that we talk about the atmosphere under the stubhub lights in the tennis stadium year after year if this is the last year here then whatever's coming under that tva has got to be exciting yeah and i think i echo tommy with the tennis stadium is always exciting and i'm really excited for the the clean ladder i think the athletes haven't touched a heavy barbell yet in a sprint fashion i think it's always exciting to watch i know the athletes are excited to get to that so that's what i'm looking forward to a lot of monkey wrenches from dave castro i can't believe we're so far in still no barbell down yet but murph not a barbell in sight there went down this morning when it was all said and done the women's leaderboard shaked out shook out like this we've got carrie pierce with her first event win ever to crossfit games followed by some big names david's daughter carolee matthews shook up her region samantha briggs so glad she made it to the party kara webb moving herself back up but it was miranda oldroid who caught up with the winner carrie pierce carrie you got to do murph again last year you were fifth place today first place what was the difference how did it feel out there it felt a lot better last year this year than it did last year my coach made me do murph last week with part of it with a 35 pound sandbag some of the push-ups and squats and in new york city in the middle of the day in 90 degree weather going upstairs and around crowded people and stuff so i know if i did that this wouldn't be as bad as last year so it was definitely better it was nice to break up the reps physically as well as mentally because it gave you smaller chunks to look at throughout the workout now obviously you did well in it last year so you were probably somewhat excited to see it come up again when they told you you were doing it again what were your thoughts about that i was excited to do it again this year i figured he would have us do it a different way i wasn't sure if it would be partitioning or i mean a lot of people throughout maybe different movements like chest the bar handstand push-ups some sort of that variation but i like the way that it ended up and obviously it worked out well for me congratulations to carrie pierce me katie what do you make of that somebody named not named samantha briggs wins murph well i think it's her second game's appearance you know i think she came out here confident she was 17th in the trail run to start off the week here but i think with the confidence this gives her i think it sets her up well for the weekend and she wasn't the only one that did herself some favors tommy who else really helped their position well for me it's got to be the 2015 champ catching david's daughter she came into this event in 10th place being in the top 10 is great but a whole heap of expectations on her stepping up to the plate to uh finish second in this event overall i don't think a lot of people would have necessarily picked catching to finish second in this workout but you know what she's a great runner she showed up looking leaner a great performance moves her up into fifth and now she's within striking distance of the podium she has turned herself into one heck of a runner based upon what we saw at the ranch as well but not everyone had potentially the performance that they wanted to who didn't do themselves any favors i think it's another former champ i think annie thor's otter finished 24th here she was 23rd in the swim i i thought she would do better but with that said last year she finished 33rd here didn't make the cap she struggled afterwards and i think mentally and physically she's in a much better place this year i think she needs this next event to boost her confidence a little bit and move forward with the weekend and not just the women got to enjoy murph this morning the men also did it as well when the dust finally settled for them here's what the leader would look like josh bridges making his comeback appearance to the game last year when merv happened you know he basically said that he was he was furious that you know an american didn't win we'll get to those results there in a second but uh he rectified that this year with his first place finish in 34 minutes and 38 seconds only individual sub 35 then matt fraser again he is on fire thus far ben smith doing himself some favors jumping back up there in the leaderboard scott panchak decided to get in there as well but miranda aldroid josh bridges let's get back to him for a second he is operating with some sort of fire that we haven't seen from an athlete in a while why is that ah you know what he has always carried that relative intensity for him compared to the other athletes but you know what his past life you know he he did have that kind of military background so i think this workout meant something more to him than some of the other athletes but missing a year kind of really lit a fire under his belly and i think he kind of answered the critics at regionals with the snatch ladder and now to come back in a workout in murph that a lot of people would expect him to win just to kind of actually live that out and blow the field away when you have someone like matt frazier that's on your heels a guy who finished second in murph last year you know that's no easy task for him so he came out strong from the get-go putting himself in front during the the bodyweight portion of this workout and it just shows us why everyone loves josh bridges as an athlete because he carries that fire and when he comes across the finish line you're going to get a great celebration you know i was watching as he came across the finish line and he ripped off his best he threw it on the ground you can't help but get fired up about that i think everybody just plays off that and i think it's a great win for josh but the man that he just beat there matt fraser he once again he destroyed his regional second two years in a row you know this potentially is he is he gonna be able to maintain what he's shown us so far i think so i was really surprised on the trail run the 7k trail run to start off the uh the week i was really surprised with the win there uh you know impressed with the performance here and i think this is just going to jumpstart him once we get to the heavy barbell he's got a great competition so far but it was josh bridges that won murph and miranda old roy caught up with him when it was all said and done josh bridges i don't think too many people are going to be surprised that you did so well in that event how was it to do murph this year when you missed out on doing it last year yeah it was really cool i'm glad they brought it back um you know i like i like the uh partition or unpartitioned one a little better um i think it's just more challenging and uh it can really grind into some dudes but uh this was this was good it was fun i uh you know it's in honor of someone so you always got to put out and i didn't really want to let anyone else win so it felt good doing really well so far how would you describe the tests up to this point uh they were they're all really fun you know going to aromas was really cool a really cool experience for me i've never been up there so getting to do the uh the hill run deadlift to work out again that was really cool and then uh the med ball one with the sprint at the top that was really fun the swim was you know good i wish i would have done a little better but they've all been really fun so far um excited to do uh some barbell work maybe uh some more stuff at the stadium stuff like that that'll be really cool too so so far it's been kind of like you know maybe not so much crossfit as opposed to like just i don't know odd object or weird stuff or i don't know more athletic type of stuff so it'd be fun to do some crossfit and not that that's not crossfit but you know what i mean organic crossfit i guess totally we have the clean event later today and then a bunch of events that are still unknown what is your goal for that event for the weekend overall uh you know every event obviously you want to go and get a win um the clean event is going to be really fun i'm excited for it i like cleaning the weights aren't i don't have to hit a pr like i did in regionals so i'm excited about that uh so it'll be good i uh i like to do a little more of i guess strength endurance type stuff so the clean workout uh i'm excited for i'm not like worried like oh it's a it's a heavy workout so i don't know if i'll do well but so i think i will do well and uh i hope to do well all right well we'll let you go get cleaned up thank you josh that very next workout is going to be very telling for josh bridges you heard him say it himself he definitely prefers those grinders to the heavy barbells obviously josh did himself some favors but who else did as well i think noah olsen did himself a favor here uh in this event he didn't start out the week very well he went 32nd and 23rd but he's since gone a sixth place finish an eighth place finish and then third here sets himself up well i think he'll do very well in the clean ladder today i think you're right of that as well now somebody that you don't think did so well uh i still have some high hopes for who's that uh yeah brent fukowski i actually thought he would do much better in murf than he did he took 28th place overall in that workout and really he came in from the get-go kind of lagging back on the run i thought he was just kind of playing coy and was going to kind of make a move on the bodyweight movements but necessarily didn't do that and with looking forward to what we have next in a heavy barbell i know that's given him trouble in the past and he's worked on that but relative to your peers at the games you have yet to show us that he can handle that heavy barbell in an elite manner so he's got some question marks coming into tonight even though he was in second coming in all right i mean he is fired up and ready to show that he's not a fluke he made it here he earned his spot after five events the men's leaderboard shifting a little bit but not too much matt frazer the man in charge with 398 points bridges in second place and there's fakowski still in the top three and i see a goodmanson i see you in fourth place you're not gonna catch me off guard but i'm incredibly impressed yesterday ben smith was not in the top 10 and now quietly making his way back into fifth place but that's what jumps out at me but what surprises you too for me it's alex anderson uh he's been steady all weekend ethan murph 12th in the trail run some workouts that most people might not think he's great at i know pat you talked to him and he mentioned hey you know i like the heavy barbell but i'm excited to show off how good of a runner i am and i think he's done that so far a guy who finished 13th in his rookie campaign doesn't draw a lot of fanfare to him necessarily outside of the fact that him and his brothers are one fit family i think another strong top 10 performance in this workout heading into a workout that fares well for him in the heavy barbell on the squat clean he's going to turn some heads this year i'm actually surprised with matt frazier with how well he's done in both runs and the other events here but already being in first place i know he's really driven he's really ready and he wants to be on top of that podium this year and i think it's really scary that he's already sitting in first place going into the tennis stadium today yeah and haven't touched a barbell yet and that is exactly what is in store for these athletes next they will be up against event number six the squat clean pyramid kind of reminiscent of what we did at regionals with that snatch ladder we've got the reps going 10-8-6-4-2 and the weights only get heavier time and time again this is going to be an event that i think not only everyone in the stadium is going to enjoy but i know the athlete's going to eat it up but tommy who can really crush this thing i mean it's got to be matt fraser he's in first place we're going to a heavy barbell workout that's his forte he was an olympic lifter we've had three single modality workouts so far and he's still 78.68 points ahead of second i think this workout in particular with how well he performed in the format of this pyramid that we saw with the snatch at regionals coupled with the fact that he's done well uh and every time we've had a heavy barbell at the games this is the equivalent of a belt high fastball at 80 miles an hour he's going to absolutely knock this one out of the park and extend his lead on the rest of the rest of the pack going into the evening i agree with you i think he will do well but who needs to do well he needs to do well i just talked about him ben smith he really helped himself out murph he was 10th going into that he's now in fifth place i really look for him to push matt in this next event you know he's very consistent he's very he doesn't have lows he doesn't have high so i look for him to go out there obviously uh he's got to be excited about this next workout and i think he's going to move up from where he's at both of them so talented with the barbell frays are so emotional and just ben smith so cool calm and collected but the man on top right now is matt fraser and miranda oldroy caught up with him matt frazier looking very tough to beat i think people maybe are a little bit surprised about what happened at the ranch at least i was on the 7k now with murph you did well in that last year how are you feeling on this first day here at the stubhub center i feel great um i feel fresh so just looking to keep chugging through the weekend you've made it very clear that you're here to win the crossfit games how are you feeling about that right now and what do you feel like you need to do for the rest of the day and the rest of the weekend um yeah of course i'm here to win um even if that workout didn't go well still here to win um just gonna stick to my own game not worry about what other people are doing and just try to finish strong is this fun for you or is it all business uh i guess i'm lucky enough that it's both um i'm here serious having a good but also having a good time awesome well i know you're trying to get out of the sun and rest up before later we can't wait to see you on the clean event thank you matt thank you i mean everybody here earned their spot everybody here is a ridiculous animal of fitness but there's a couple people that have that special something that it factories is tough to define but what is it about matt fraser that makes him just such a dangerous athlete well i think he just mentioned it right there it's it's a little bit of fun and a little bit of business with him normally you're not supposed to mix business with pleasure but he does so and he's doing so beautifully it's a little bit of deja vu to last year he finishes second in the murph event heads into the tennis stadium in first place all the momentum in the world except i think the difference is this year it looks like i don't see anything that's going to trip him up so i'm just excited to see how that's going to play out into the next event and whatever's coming after that i mean if it's even possible he looks more focused and more driven this year and just eyes on the prize ready to go and i think if he can continue that like tommy said he's really worked on his weaknesses i think it's scary for the rest of the weekend well matt fraser has put himself in a wonderful position and so has samantha briggs after these events she finds herself on top of the leaderboard 378 points she almost didn't make it to the games and now she's in first place tia toomey once again second i'm super impressed by her but quite frankly i think one of the big stories is tenell reed sitting there in third place i don't think any of us coming into the games would have thought that would be the case but sam briggs is your winner and miranda oldroid got caught up with her after murph sam briggs you're not even technically supposed to be here i guess found out just days before that you were going to be able to make it and now you're doing so well after a few days of competition how does it feel to be here right now pretty awesome uh i think the first day was still kind of like a dream is it is it real am i i'm not actually here especially because it was so different being flown to the ranch it was kind of like i'm really here is this just like some kind of surreal dream that's going on but no it feels good especially being back at the snow pub now first like real day of the competition so you're looking very strong right now we have the next event coming up which is the clean event and i know that that might not be your favorite how are you going to get through it what are your thoughts going into that event um hey clean's a better for me than snatches so let's see how it goes it is i have actually cleaned the last bar so anything is possible so let's let's see if i can at least get past the second bath which is all i got on the snatchers so if i get onto the third bar in this i'll be happy i think if anybody can show that anything is possible this weekend so far it's you because you're here and you're doing so great thank you sam thank you and just to be clear for our viewers at home samantha briggs is your overall leader after five events she did not win murph in the lead right now things change all the time is she someone who could still be in contention when we're wrapping this thing up on sunday i think so i think coming into the weekend you look at how she got here in the first place no acclamation has to deal with jet lag the stress of the entire visa situation weighing down on her and you know what she just steps up to the plate wins the first event and is now in first place i'm not going to put anything past her now because what she's doing is the making of a crossfit legend yeah and i just you know she is a veteran i think that's she's got her head about her you know even with all the circumstances getting here i really think she is going to be in contention i think you know like we talked about focus and drive from matt frager i think sam briggs has that as well and i think it sets her up well for the rest of the weekend and she said she could do the last barbell so i mean that's going to be dangerous for people if she can pull that off who needs to do well on this upcoming event lauren fisher needs to do well on this upcoming event for the the females and i think you know she missed the games last year she was 11th going into murf she didn't help herself there she's down to 15th i think she'll come out she'll she'll have a lot of fire in her belly and i think she's going to do really well on this clean ladder she is one of those athletes i agree that will perform on that but some women are not in the position right now that they want to be so who's in a fight for the life on needs to make some money on event number six it's tough to say that kara webb's in a position that she doesn't want to be because she's inside the top ten but i think this is a real opportunity for her to make a push up into the top five maybe even get to the top three you look at the the movement she's going to have to do the squat clean and 16.2 she had the best overall uh finish worldwide showed us she can handle the heavy squat clean then you look at the format well she had the event record in the snatch pyramid at regionals so no problem with the format she's over 100 points back from sam briggs 102 to be exact so she needs an event win to kind of put her back in that conversation i think that's what she's going to get the individuals going gonna get a small reprieve a little bit of a break the teams are gonna come onto the field right now excuse me a little bit they have two events under their belt so far and surprise surprise craig crossfit mayhem freedom in first place 280 points followed by yes we chatted a lot as the games was leading up 12 labor's lines and diablo who smashed their regional as well so far being strong but can mayhem do it once again and just leave this thing wire to wire tommy what do you think i think so i think it's pretty scary but the fact that outside of crossfit yes is 10 points back the third place finisher is 70 points back and we're only a couple of events in i look at this workout deadlifts burpees handstand walk nothing that's going to trip up this mayhem team so i think it's a situation where last year they kind of snuck into that first place position at the end i don't think they're going to let go i was watching the first workout murph the other night and they came in middle of the pack when they came into the stadium and i happen to move down uh toward the track here and the next thing i know they're out two or three minutes ahead of the next team and i thought holy cow this is scary for the weekend if they're starting out the week like this i think they have a lot of confidence no one works out more than these guys i mean the volume they're putting up so i think they've set themselves up well they're very confident i think they may they may go wire to wire and they're a veteran team we know they have the goods but some teams show up with potentially a lot of hype and don't live up but thus far that's not the case for yas yeah they certainly have they're the only team within striking distance of uh of mayhem right now just 10 points back they have the individual open winner and jamie green on the women's side they were first place overall in the open as a team they didn't win their region but you know what what really matters in the end is showing up at the games and they're doing that so far yeah i think it you know they're all rookies so we'll see how this plays out you know mayhem uh a bunch of veterans here and a bunch of rookies we'll see who's going to stay consistent at the end and who's going to keep it together coming up next for the teams is the event we're calling the triple double and it looks like this there's a lot going on right there it's going to be male and female pairs they've got some work to do on the ski arc ski followed by some double unders then synchronized squat snatches 145 for the men 95 for the women moving on to station two some ghd med ball tosses synchronized sit-ups bar muscle-ups we've got calories in the rower double unders overhead squats i mean this thing just goes on and on and on but what is it about this particular workout that you think is going to potentially be the sticky point for the teams um well i'm not sure if that uh that event description was correct because i thought we were doing fat bar pull-ups but um our deadlifts but either way i think that we've added a lot of new elements whether it's the fat bar on the deadlift or the top med ball ghd toss i think there's a lot of things that maybe teams haven't practiced this year so a lot of these new elements could trip up these teams because outside of practicing in the warm-up area or maybe doing some stuff back at their home gym wherever they're staying there's not a lot of experience with these types of workouts let me step in there because it actually was not the correct graphic for everybody at home we are going to be using a new piece of gear a fat bar for some deadlifts which you are intimately familiar with coming from rogue tell us a little bit about that yeah i think the fat bar is interesting it's 13 feet long it's got a two inch uh diameter on it yep and it's 84 pounds and i think these teams you know they've done uh double deadlifts on a regular barbell but this is more like an axle grip so it's going to be tough for them and they're going to have three people on the bar so i think communication is definitely key here with timing so you know we'll see what comes out i think i think they'll be able to handle this well but it is definitely a new element that they haven't practiced and if if some of us who didn't get to see the announcement back on tuesday the demo team actually did a couple of reps with the fat bar and you have paul tremblay austin mallio two great dead lifters neil maddox who's strong as hell and you know what they had a tough time doing five this is gonna be fun to watch play out all right so it was tough for the demo team who are capable athletes but what team are you going to be keeping an eye on tommy i'm going to be watching crossfit dynamics their team that had a lot of hype as well kind of being the super team all coming from different areas they're 78 points back of first place right now so they need a couple of strong performances today kind of get back into the conversation not just through the podium but for the top spot i think crossfit vancouver it's their eighth consecutive appearance here at the games i think they're very consistent they won it in 2010 they're currently sitting in eighth place i think their consistency and all the veterans on their team i think they'll be able to make a push here today they're one of those teams we talk about year after year of course there's incredible tests of fitness going on but we have an amazing event also out there in venda village and for more on that here's kayla banfield the crossfit games is the best place to see the fittest men and women on the planet but while you're here if you're looking for something to do in between events vendor village is the place to be [Music] a lot of things are happening at the life 810 today we are actually a part of the scavenger hunt with crossfit hq so we are going to be doing swatsky so if anybody is interested you guys can come in and ask for the special ski we're doing shots of party [Music] we'll aids you one ago i should have taken my top off like her dave tell us what we can expect here at rx ropes yeah well caleb this weekend we have the zeus 200 challenge which is trying to do 200 unbroken double unders with the over half pound zeus cable uh you're just going for unbroken and there's no time limit just got to get them all done without breaking and just your opinion how does the over half pound rope compare to the normal rx ropes uh well it's phenomenal it's a great training stimulus a lot of the top games athletes are training with this regularly so that when you go to your lighter rope you don't even feel it so it's awesome can you explain to us what this lady is doing cause it looks like she's wearing away at her hands but i'm sure it's got some kind of benefit to it yes it does so we're sanding down the calluses on our hands which we all need yes absolutely megan tell me what's happening here at inbody hi so at in body basically we're breaking down your body composition into a segmental muscle or how much lean body mass you have in each segment of your body so what's the verdict what is my body fat do we want to say that out loud yeah go for it it's only 16.8 that's like amazing that's awesome kyle tell us what's new at the reebok tent we have a couple new features here in the reebok tent this year we have moments from the past 10 years so we have a wall full of all the moments we're able to customize that for you directly on site [Music] as you can see there is lots going on down here at vendor village but it's something that you have to experience for yourself so i'll see you here at vendor village vanderville is just a magical place of fun you gotta bring the whole family out there and we are joined at the desk through the magic of television allison is here welcome aboard thank you so much and both you and tommy are going to be bringing us kind of continuing coverage throughout the day what's in store we're going to be doing a little bit of everything we are going to be having a blast we're going to do event recap in previews we're going to have amazing insight and analysis from this guy over here we're going to have kayla covering all over the ground she'll be at the athlete area she'll be at the vendor village we're gonna have tons of behind the scenes we're gonna have great guests dan bailey is gonna be on later today and of course we're gonna let the fans know how they can join us and be part of the conversation really just get the full atmosphere of the crossfit games experience so yeah festival it's not just the games it's a festival that's going to do it right now for us get over to vendor village take advantage of that for gear food apparel everything that you need we'll be bringing you continuing coverage through allison and tommy over the course of the day and for katie i'm pat sherwood enjoy the games awesome [Music] you

Channel: CrossFit Games

Views: 773,548

Rating: 4.7078738 out of 5

Keywords: Functional Fitness, Fitness, Functional, CrossFit, The CrossFit Games, The Sport of Fitness, Forging Elite Fitness, Murph, 2016 CrossFit Games

Id: 2lpk2oa639E

Length: 148min 34sec (8914 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 02 2020