It’s that time of the year. The 2024 CrossFit Games starts this Thursday (8) in Fort Worth, Texas. And if you think you’re excited, imagine being one of the 22 athletes going to compete at this elite level for the first time as an individual? And some of these rookies will probably win our hearts during the weekend. Here is our list of those who we think will make a splash at the Games this year.
If you want to know all the names of the rookies competing this year, click here. It was supposed to be 23 athletes, but Ivan Kukartsev received a 2-year ban from competing after failing a drug test and proving his supplements were contaminated without his knowledge.
For this list, we simply looked through the athlete’s history and past competition experience to get to the Games for their first time. Let’s see who you should be keeping a close eye on.
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Grace Walton
Winner of the Oceania Semifinal, Grace Walton supposedly won the CrossFit Open this year, only for her last workout to receive some dubious penalty, leaving her in 2nd place and without the symbolic crown.
Nevertheless, she maintained her fighting spirit this year and finished 21st during Quarterfinals and winning her Semifinal – granted, there was no Kara Saunders or Tia-Clair Toomey competing this year, but still she could be the next big thing coming out of Australia and we are excited to see her competing among the big names.
Jack Rozema
After four attempts at Semifinals, Jack Rozema managed to become #GamesBound after finishing 6th at the North America East Semifinal ahead of Saxon Panchik, Alexandre Caron and Travis Mayer, for example.
Just like other names on this list, Rozema has improved in every single part of the competition this year compared to his previous entries. He finished 85th worldwide during the Open, 25th at Quarterfinals and 6th at Semifinals – his best placement during Semifinals before was 13th last year.
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Aimee Cringle
At 25 years old, Aimee Cringle has been doing the Open since 2018, but always fell short at Semifinals. She’s been to Semifinals 4 times, and only now she managed to stay among the qualifiers. And what a qualifying round she did.
She finished 5th, ahead other more known names such as Jacqueline Dahlstrom, Thuridur Erla Helgadottir, Rebecka Vitesson and Elena Carratala Sanahuja.
2024 was also the year she bested all her previous years during the Open, the Quarterfinals and Semifinals. So, who knows, it very well could be she stays within the top 10 on her first time at the CrossFit Games.
Austin Hatfield
Also from North America East comes Austin Hatfield. The American rookie finished 14th worldwide during the Open and showed his willingness to enjoy the suck finishing 5th worldwide during Quarterfinals and 8th during Semifinals, his second attempt only.
With 24 years old, we are sure Hatfield will make more appearances at the Games, but his first one could make his name a standout among other elite athletes.
Hattie Kanyo
Canadian athlete Hattie Kanyo has been logging her CrossFit Open worokuts since 2017. At 32 years old, most people would think that you start to decline in fitness, but Kanyo proved the haters wrong and managed to her get first ticket to the CrossFit Games after finishing 4th at the North America West Semifinal.
Who else was on that competition floor? Arielle Loewen, Dani Speegle, Bethany Flores, Rebecka Fuselier, and Olivia Kerstetter, to name a few – and only Loewen managed to get ahead of her.
Aniol Ekai
Spanish athlete Aniol Ekai finished 9th worldwide during Quarterfinals and 4th at Semifinals. The European Semifinals. Do you know what that means? Do you remember who were competing? Simply every amazing European athlete you can think of, because there was only one European Semifinal competition that put all of them against each other for a chance to fight for the title of Fittest on Earth.
Aniol finished ahead of BK Gudmundsson (10x Games athlete), Uldis Upenieks (4x Games athlete) and Jonne Koski (9x Games athlete). That is the sheer power that Aniol managed to get by as if it were just another competition under his belt.
Will he crack the top 10 Fittest on Earth this year? We sure think so.
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