The 10 Greatest Moments from the 2017 CrossFit Games

They came. They saw. They conquered.Over four days in Madison, WI, 640 athletes battled it out at the CrossFit Games, the annual test of the ten domains of fitness: cardiovascular and respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy. When the dust settled, Matt Fraser stood atop the men’s podium in one of the most dominant CrossFit Games performances ever seen, while Australia’s Tia-Clair Toomey narrowly edged out her countrywoman Kara Webb to finally—after two straight second-place finishes—claim the crown of Fittest Woman on Earth.Ranging from as young as fourteen to over sixty, the athletes all demonstrated a spectacular level of training. But while the top-tier athletes can undoubtedly claim glory, a few performances stood out across the weekend.Here are the top 10 moments from the 2017 CrossFit Games.

Patrick Vellner’s flawless obstacle course run

Vellner, the 2016 Rookie of the Year, took 36th out of 39 on the first event (the Run-Swim-Run), but shot upwards from there, placing 13th in the second event and 7th in the third. By the final heat of the fourth event, the Obstacle Course, Vellner hit his stride, delivering a run that was both fluid and flawless.

Guilherme Malheiros’ Jaw-Dropping Snatch

Malheiros, a 17-year-old from Brazil, impressed the crowd when he snatched 235 lbs—well above his body weight. From there, though, he just kept going. He ended by snatching 291 lbs, which would’ve put him in 5th place in the adult event—tied with Mat Fraser, this year’s Fittest Man on Earth.

Team Wasatch’s Muscle-Ups and Snatches

On the first day, the three women of Team Wasatch faced a grueling workout: 27-21-15-9-3 reps (75 total) of muscle-ups and squat snatches at 95 lbs. Seven teams couldn’t even finish that event under the 12-minute time cap, but Wasatch flew through the workout in 9:10, beating the second-place 12 Labours CrossFit by almost 40 seconds.  

George Sanchez’s Epic Banger

On Friday night, CrossFit Games impresario Dave Castro revealed the long-teased mystery event would be an “Assault Banger“: 40 calories on an assault bike and twenty feet of sledge-hammering a “banger” along a metal track. Sanchez deserves a spot on the Greatest Moments list for his Assault Bike time alone (40 calories in 27 seconds is a freaking marvel). It doesn’t hurt that, with a total time of 1:48, he also won the event by ten seconds. 

Megan Trupp’s Bar Fight

While it’s unlikely that 17-year-old Megan Trupp has ever been in an actual bar fight, she knows her way around the grip-busting workout that bears its name: 50 chest-to-bar pull-ups, 40 toes-to-bar, and 30 clean and jerks. Trupp’s time of 9:46 was 33 seconds faster than the next competitor. Even more impressive: Trupp was clean and jerking 145 lbs—just a few more than she weighs.

Ricky Garard’s Hay Bale Hootenanny

In the first event on Sunday, rookie Ricky Garard showed a capacity for grunt work that no one on the field came close to matching. Faced with the “Madison Triplet”—five rounds of running 450 meters, plus seven reps of cleaning a 100-lb sandbag over a four-foot bale of hay (along with a burpee)—Garard finished forty seconds ahead of second. And unlike every other competitor, who collapsed on the ground after finishing, he slapped his chest and strutted about after the win.

Kara Webb’s Heavy 17.5

Saturday night’s final individual event was a “heavy” version of 17.5, the last event of the CrossFit Open. For the women, that meant doing 10 rounds of 35 double-unders and nine thrusters at 95 lbs, the same weight that the men used during the Open. Webb not only won the event, but also finished in 7:55.86—only eight seconds slower than fellow Games competitor Zeke Grove’s Open time.

Allen Bridges’ 2RM Front Squat

In the third event of the Masters (60+) division, Allen Bridges front-squatted 320 lbs twice. According to his athlete profile, though, this wasn’t even close to his best performance. In 2009, he claims to have (back) squatted 804 lbs, breaking his own previous world record of 706 lbs.

Tia-Clair Toomey’s Nail-Biting Finish

Going into the final event—a sprint of parallette handstand push-ups, kettlebell deadlifts, and overhead lunges, cleverly named the “Fibonacci Final”—Toomey led her fellow Aussie, Kara Webb, by only six points. Toomey was poised to beat Webb for the entirety of the lunges, but just as she crossed the finish line, she dropped the left kettlebell and had to backtrack. Webb finished .19 seconds ahead—but Toomey’s lead held, earning her the title of Fittest Woman on Earth. 

Mat Fraser’s Triple G Chipper

Of the 13 events, the mighty American won four and took second place in four, delivering the most dominant victory in CrossFit Games history. Nearly any time he competed could be considered a greatest moment, but the Triple G Chipper perhaps best epitomizes his style of dominance. As with most events, he started slowly and, halfway through, at the pistol squats, he was in sixth place. By the end, though, he had worked his way to first. When he took the podium on Sunday night, he’d accrued almost as many points as the bottom four athletes combined.