Wodapalooza 2016 was a huge and successful event. Over 1300 competitors and 25,000 spectators gathered at Bayfront Park in Miami for a weekend of celebratio
Jan 20, 2016 by Armen Hammer
Wodapalooza 2016 was a huge and successful event. Over 1300 competitors and 25,000 spectators gathered at Bayfront Park in Miami for a weekend of celebration and fitness and boy did they celebrate some fitness!
The Elite Individual Competition
Noah Ohlsen and Brooke Wells stood victorious at the end of the competition, respectively winning the Men's Elite and the Women's Elite divisions. The weekend started off with an absolute deluge of rain, but that didn't stop the competitors from getting out on the floor and throwing down against each other.
I chatted with some of the elite men's competitors just before their first event. Here's what they had to say about warming up in the rain:
Even with the rain and wetness, each of these guys and girls was more than willing and able to perform at elite levels on Friday especially on the Little Chipper. The Little Chipper was a deceptively simple workout:
21/15 Calories on the Assault Bike 15 Power snatches (115/85) 9 Bar facing burpees 15 Thrusters 21/15 Calories on the Assault Bike
The scores were even crazier. Alex Anderson won the men's side with a time of 3:00 and Brooke Wells won the women's side with a time of 3:36. Check out the final men's heat here and the final women's heat here.
Saturday was a lot drier and sunnier than Friday and included a Wodapalooza staple: swimming. Between the sun and the surf, all the athletes had a good time getting in the water between some deadlifts and handstand pushups. I even got an answer to the most important question of them all from Noah Ohlsen:
Saturday night's event brought us some exciting strategizing and heavy lifting with the Snatch Medley. I spoke to Brooke Wells about her weekend and saw the Elite Men bro-out while warming up:
By Sunday, Noah and Brooke had pretty much locked in their first place finishes with pretty massive leads.
The team competition was much closer all weekend and in both cases, the champions were determined in the last two events on Sunday night. We saw Athletigen come out on top on the men's side even though they weren't in the top three at all in the weekend until that point and Two Grown Ups and The Kid slowly work their way to the champions' position through the whole weekend.
On the men's side of the team competition, there were some real badasses including the Smith brothers and the Panchik brothers. I told them that I'd picked the Panchiks to win and it looked like I was going to be right up until the very last workout when the Smiths were just able to sneak past the Panchiks by just 7 points.
Check out what Scott and Ben had to say about competing with their brothers:
Aside from those two, we were also treated to Graham Holmberg (whose team finished 3rd overall with impressive finishes on Sunday) and Rich Froning (whose team finished tied with the Smiths after coming back from a disappointing Day 1). During the swim event, we got a chance to see our two previous male CrossFit Games Champions lead their teams to solid finishes, but it was their teammates who overcame the most obvious adversities.
Ben's brother Dane lost a swim shoe while coming out of the water on his last round:
And James Hobart lost his goggles while diving into the water after his last round:
Even cooler, CrossFit Shrewsbury (the unknown men's team), entered the competition via the online qualifier and still placed second against some really impressive super teams! I caught up with them on Sunday to find out just who these people were and it turns out they're pretty awesome:
So there it is, folks! Wodapalooza 2016 was awesome and if you missed out on any of the action, be sure to watch for all the archives from the event and check out the rest of our coverage too!
