The 2016 Reebok Crossfit Games was one for the books. Not only was this year’s games the most difficult in Crossfit history it was also the tenth anniversary. The five-day competition began at the birth place of the games: The Ranch. Athletes were flown from Carson, California to The Ranch at 3:30 a.m. Wednesday morning. Day one of competition started with a 7K trail run that lead strait into a deadlift ladder. Wednesday ended with the Ranch Mini Chipper. Thursday’s only event was the 500-meter ocean swim. This event seemed simple enough except that all eighty athletes, males and females, ran in one heat.

Friday began with Murph, run one mile, then five rounds of 20 pull-ups, 40 push-ups and 60 squats, followed by another one mile run all done wearing a 20-pound vest for men and a 14-pound vest for women. This was a repeat event from last year, and proved to be just as difficult. Sam Briggs, two times Games champion, finished first out of the women and Josh Bridges, former navy seal, won the men’s event. After Murph, the athletes were challenged with a heavy event: The Squat Clean Pyramid. Event 6 was 10 squat cleans (Males 245/Females 165), 8 squat cleans (265/180), 6 squat cleans (285/195), 4 squat cleans (305/205) and 2 squat cleans (325/215). For most athletes these weights are heavy and near many one rep maximums. The final even of day three was Double DT, another hero WOD.

Saturday hosted three events, Climbing Snail, The Separator, and 100%. Climbing Snail introduced the Crossfit world to the “snail” a giant drum filed with sandbags. The Separator had one of the most difficult movements in Crossfit, ring handstand push-ups. Many of the athletes struggled with this movement. The rings complicated the already difficult handstand push-up and proved to be very time consuming during the event. Saturday night in the tennis stadium was fast paced event number ten, 100 percent. This event was a simple 40 box jump overs and 20 D-ball cleans at 150 for men and 100 pounds for women.

Heading into championship Sunday, Matt Fraser sat in first place and Ben Smith in second place overall. For the women, Tia-Clair Toomey out of Austrailia sat in first place, closely followed by Katrin Davidsdottir in second and Sara Sigmundsdottir in third place overall. Sundays five events began with a 280-foot handstand walk for time. Davisdottir won and completed this event unbroken and was the only athlete out of both the men and women to do so. Events 12 and 13 were back to back events. Event 12 was an 840-foot suicide shuttle sprint, immediately followed by The Plow event. Athletes dragged a plow 560-feet for time.

Event 14- Rope Chipper debuted the ski erg. This event consisted of a 200-meter ski, 40 double-unders with a 2.5-pound rope, 200-meter row, 40 double-unders, 0.4-mile assault bike, 40 double-unders, 200-meter ski and completed with a 90-foot sled pull (310/220 lb.). After this even Matt Fraser had locked up the win for the men’s competition, but the race for gold on the women’s side was a tight competition. The final event of the 2016 Reebok Crossfit Games was named Redemption. This even saw the return of the pegboard which caused a lot of headache in last year’s games. In the 2015 games only three women were able to complete a pegboard assent. Event 15 was 3 pegboard assents, 21 thrusters, 2 pegboard assents, 15 thrusters, 1 pegboard assent followed by 9 thrusters (135/85 lb).

The men’s top three were Matt Fraser in first, Ben Smith in second and Patrick Vellner out of Canada in third. After carefully tallying the women’s points it was Katrin Davidsdottir in first, Tia-Clair Toomey in second and Sara Sigmundsdottir in third. All three women were on the podium for the second year in a row in the exact same places. Davidsdottir reclaimed her spot on top of the podium for the second year in a row. A fan favorite Annie Thorisdottir did not make the podium, and seasoned games verteran Sam Briggs announced her individual career retirement.

For more information about the games and details about results visit http://games.crossfit.com/.