Mat Fraser won the 2017 CrossFit Games by the widest margin in Games history. Fraser won 7 events and topped 2nd place by 216 points on his way to his 2nd consecutive CrossFit Games title.
But what no one knew was that Fraser accomplished this with a pretty serious knee injury.
In an interview with CNN, Fraser says he heard a loud pop in his knee while stretching on Thursday, Day 1, of the 2017 CrossFit Games. Fraser said, “It was pretty scary. It was loud. If I lifted my leg up to the side my knee bent the wrong way like it just drooped and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s not good.'”
To avoid getting pulled from the competition, Fraser kept quiet and did not tell anyone, including the CrossFit Games medical staff. “I didn’t know what tore,” Fraser told CNN. “I didn’t know how bad it was, but I knew it was bad. Odds are I’ll need surgery, so if it blows out, it blows out. I didn’t want any of the sharks smelling the blood in the water, So I just put on my face and not let anyone know I was hurt.”
CNN’s article never went into detail of Fraser’s knee injury and it appears it did not require surgery (or Fraser did another good job at hiding that, too). To read the full article, click here.
