23 Athletes Are Going to the CrossFit Games for the First Time

Semifinals are the last stage before we see the field of competition putting together the best around the globe to compete for the ultimate prize of becoming Fittest on Earth. Some of these athletes are trying that for the first time in their careers. Check out BOXROX list of athletes going to the CrossFit Games for the first time as an individual elite athlete.

Note: some athletes may have been to the Games before, but not as an individual competitor and not at the elite level – meaning age groups don’t count (teens and masters) and also athletes who have been to the Games only as part of a team also don’t count.

It was an exciting three weekend packed with action with athletes competing to get an invitation to the CrossFit Games. If you missed out on the action, you can check out all the Livestream made available on this link here.

After all the dust has settled, of all 80 individual athletes (40 men and 40 women) competing at the CrossFit Games, 23 of them will be doing it for the first time in their careers.

Congratulations to all of them for getting to this stage!

List of Athletes Going to the CrossFit Games for the First Time

Below is a quick list of all individual athletes going to the CrossFit Games for the first time in their careers. We divided the list into Semifinals, plus also written down which placement they finished in their respective Semifinals.

It is interesting to note that each Semifinal brought a new name to the pot, even the Africa Semifinals that only had one qualifying spot – both athletes going to the Games from the African continent are newcomers.

Europe men

• Aniol Ekai (Spain) — 4th
• Victor Hoffer (France) — 6th
• Harry Lightfoot (UK) — 8th
• Calum Clements (Spain) — 9th

Europe Women

• Aimee Cringle (U.K) – 5^th
• Claudia Gluck (France) – 6^th
• Linda Keesman (Netherlands) – 7^th

Asia Men

• Ivan Kukartsev (Russia Federation) – 1^st – he qualified in a team in 2021, but they withdrew due to COVID.

Ivan Kukartsev was supposed to go to the Games in 2021 as part of a team, but they had to withdraw due to COVID complications.

Asia Women

• Dawon Jung (Republic of Korea) – 3rd

Oceania Men

• Peter Ellis (Australia) – 4^th

Oceania Women

• Grace Walton (Australia) – 1^st
• Daisy McDonald (Australia) – 3^rd
• Georgia Pryer (Australia) – 4^th

North America West Men

• Chris Ibarra (USA) – 6^th

North America West Women

• Hattie Kanyo (Canada) – 4^th
• Kyra Milligan (USA) – 8^th

Kyra Milligan went to the CrossFit Games last year as part of the CrossFit Mayhem Independence team and finished 7^th worldwide.

North America East Men

• Jack Rozema (USA) – 6^th
• Austin Hatfield (USA) – 8^th

North America East Women

• Lexi Neely (USA) – 11^th

South America Men

• Bruno Marins (Brazil) – 3^rd

South America Women

• Andreia Pinheiro (Brazil) – 3^rd

Andreia Pinheiro has an interesting story. Can you guess her age by looking at the photo above? You will probably guess wrong. She is 41 years old! That’s right. She competed as a 40-year-old athlete last year at the Games in the age group and came home with a silver medal.

This time, while she also qualified to the Games again in her age group bracket, she managed to be #GamesBound among elite athletes!

Africa Men:

• Ruan Potgieter (South Africa) – 1^st

Africa Women:

• Gemma Rader (South Africa) – 1^st

The CrossFit Games is taking place on August 8-11 in Fort Worth, Texas.