Mat Fraser won five straight CrossFit Games titles and is now heading into retirement. The man who has owned the top of the podium for half a decade penned a lengthy Instagram post to announce his decision to hang up his competitive weight belt at just 31 years old.

The four-time champion talks winning, comparisons to Froning, recovery, and more.

Anyone who has followed the CrossFit Games closely over the last few years can tell you this about the two greatest male athletes the event has ever produced: Rich Froning and Mat Fraser hate being compared to each other. 

The Road to Minnesota for the 2018 Kill Cliff Granite Games begins in earnest this week with the announcement of the first of three qualifying workouts. Fitness athletes across the globe will tackle the weekly qualifying tests — spanning from now to July 2 — with the shared goal of joining the 2,000 strong slated to compete September 7-9 in St. Cloud, Minnesota.

 By Lincoln Shryack After three straight weekends of qualifying mayhem at the 2018 CrossFit Regionals, the fields of 40 men and 40 women moving on to the 2018 CrossFit Games in Madison, Wisconsin, are set. There were breathtaking performances from past champions, many first-time qualifiers, and, of course, heartbreak for those who came up just short of the cutline across the globe in the nine dramatic qualifying events. Overall, each of the nine regionals lived up to the hype and more.

 By Lincoln Shryack The second weekend of Regionals has arrived, and up next to the plate are the Central, West, and Latin America qualifiers. And woo boy, is there sure some drama on tap this Friday through Sunday. The Fittest Man on Earth will try his hand at a new region, while the departure of another superstar has left the women’s qualifier in Tennessee wide open. And that’s just the Central Regional.

Mat Fraser and Josh Bridges took first and second in CrossFit Games Open 18.5 with 198 and 191 reps, respectively, and now you can watch these two masters do what they do best. Check them out here at CrossFit Mayhem in Cookeville, Tennessee.

After five grueling weeks, we now have our 2018 CrossFit Games Open winners: Mat Fraser and Cassidy Lance-McWherter.

CrossFit HQ's media team is legit and each year they release a documentary on the previous year's CrossFit Games. The trailer for the 2017 version, called "The Redeemed and The Dominant," drops on Friday 2/9/18.

Last month, we reported that Mat Fraser was considering moving to Cookeville, Tennessee, for various reasons including tax breaks, training partners, and the ability to build the life he and his girlfriend Sammy want to lead.