For the second year in a row, Katrin Davidsdottir is the Fittest Woman on Earth. Throughout the week, Davidsdottir battled Tia-Clair Toomey, Sara Sigmundsdottir and Sam Briggs at the top of the leaderboard. Once the dust settled, Davidsdottir pulled off another title edging out Toomey by 11 points.
The Games started at 3:30am on Wednesday morning when the individual athletes flew to San Jose to visit the place where the CrossFit Games began, the Ranch in Aromas, California. The athletes faced repeat workouts from the 2009 Games including a more difficult version of the 7k trail run and a heavier version of the deadlift ladder. To finish out the day, the Ranch Mini Chipper tested the athletes with heavy wall balls, med ball GHD sit-ups and a hill sprint.
Davidsdottir finished with 168 points following two top 5 performances, but a 38th finish on the deadlift ladder. The deadlift ladder would be the only time she finished outside the top 12 all week. At the end of Wednesday, Davidsdottir was in 8th place trailing Annie Thorisdottir by 64 points.
On Thursday, the athletes attacked the 500-meter Ocean Swim on Redondo Beach. Davidsdottir finished 11th. The swim mixed up the leaderboard and now Toomey sat at the top. Davidsdottir fell back to 9th overall and 92 points off the lead.
Once back at the StubHub Center, Davidsdottir began her ascent up the leaderboard. A 2nd place in Murph and a 1st place in Double DT moved Davidsdottir up to 5th overall. But more importantly, the gap between her and Toomey in 1st place was only 14 points.
The next day the top 4 rankings bounced around. Sam Briggs crushed the Climbing Snail vaulting herself into 1st place. However, she gave it all back in The Separator. Briggs was unable to complete the ring handstand push-up and squat workout under the time cap. Davidsdottir took 2nd in the event and moved into 1st overall. However, the lead would be short-lived as Toomey retook the lead after the fast burner, 100%.
Davidsdottir headed into Sunday in 2nd place, 19 points out of the lead. Sunday morning featured three sprint events, handstand walk, suicide sprint and the Plow Pull. Each event was worth 50 points. The lead ping ponged back and forth between Davidsdottir and Toomey as Davidsdottir went unbroken in the handstand walk for the event victory. Toomey came back with a 1st place finish in the Suicide Sprint. Davidsdottir countered on the Plow Pull taking 1st.
With two events remaining, Davidsdottir held an 11-point advantage over Toomey. The first of the final events, Rope Chipper, Davidsdottir took 4th place after making a comeback on the sled pull while Toomey struggled with the pull dropping to 7th in the event. Davidsdottir extended her overall lead to 23 points.
Those additional points would prove critical as the final event, Redemption, featured the pegboard and thrusters. Davidsdottir was unable to scale the 14-foot pegboard in 2015, but she would have to make it up and down six times to complete Redemption. While more proficient this year, the final pegboard ascent stopped Davidsdottir in her tracks and all she could do was watch Toomey as she crossed the finish line under the time cap.
The fate of Davidsdottir and Toomey was unknown until Dave Castro announced the winner of the 2016 CrossFit Games. Davidsdottir finished 12th in Redemption while Toomey finished 8th. Only 10 women completed Redemption under the time cap of the final event.
With Davidsdottir and Toomey in 1st and 2nd, respectively, Sigmundsdottir finished in 3rd and Briggs finished 4th. The top 4 were in the exact order as they finished in 2015. Kari Pearce rounded out the top 5.
Final Results
1. Katrin Davidsdottir – 984 ($275,000)
2. Tia-Clair Toomey – 973 ($90,000)
3. Sara Sigmundsdottir – 919 ($60,000)
4. Sam Briggs – 874 ($40,000)
5. Kari Pearce – 804 ($25,000)
6. Brooke Wells – 796 ($23,000)
7. Kara Webb – 794 ($21,000)
8. Kristi Eramo – 767 ($19,000)
9. Alessandra Pichelli – 745 ($17,000)
10. Anna Tunnicliffe – 738 ($15,000)
11. Tennil Reed – 707 ($14,000)
12. Kristin Holte – 696 ($13,000)
13. Annie Thorisdottir – 682 ($12,000)
14. Carol-Ann Reason-Thibault – 659 ($11,000)
15. Tasia Percevecz – 638 ($10,000)
16. Michele Letendre – 613 ($9,000)
17. Chyna Cho – 612 ($8,000)
18. Jamie Hagiya – 574 ($7,000)
19. Thuridur Helgadottir – 563 ($6,000)
20. Emily Abbott – 562 ($5,000)
