Jessica Griffith shared a screenshot of her email accepting an invite to be on the 2018 CrossFit Games Demo Team. The Instagram story was ahead of any announcement by CrossFit.
CrossFit has generally invited athletes who had previously been to the CrossFit Games, but missed qualifying that year. Last year, however, CrossFit broke from that trend and invited Alison Scudds and Ben Alderman, two Regional athletes who had yet to qualify for the Games.
Last year the demo team had 7 athletes on the team, one more than the required 6 for the team competition. With only teams of 4 this year, it is still up in the air for how many will be on this year’s demo team. Here’s a look at a few names we might see joining Griffith in Madison…
Paul Tremblay
Paul Tremblay was on the team last year and appears to be one of Dave Castro’s favorites. Tremblay can help Castro fine tune the strength-based events and he already knows what it takes to be on the demo team.
Streat Hoerner
Streat Hoerner was one of the fittest men to not qualify for the CrossFit Games this year. Hoerner qualified for his first Games appearance last year and then won at Wodapalooza in the offseason. Hoerner would be a great all-around pick for Castro.
Carleen Mathews
Mathews is a multi-year CrossFit Games veteran who narrowly missed qualifying for the Games this year in the newly combined West Regional. Mathews has been to the Games three times and knows what it takes to compete at this level.
Tia Wright
Tia Wright was not close to qualifying for the Games this year, but she has been on the cusp in year’s past. Wright would be a similar pick to Scudds last year. Wright has been out to Santa Cruz several times this year to be on CrossFit’s podcast and was on a Road to the Games episode this year. She’s obviously on CrossFit’s radar and she is also dating head of CrossFit’s social media department, Johnathan Haynes.
