CrossFit has released the rosters for the Canadian and Meridian teams for the 2017 CrossFit Invitational scheduled for later this year. The CrossFit Invitational is CrossFit’s version of an all-star game featuring the top athletes from around the world competing on teams from the United States, Canada, Europe/Africa (Meridian) and Australia/Asia (Pacific).
This year’s Invitational is in Melbourne, Australia on November 5.
The Canadian team brings back three of last year’s team. Returning members include Brent Fikowski, Patrick Vellner and Carol-Ann Reason-Thibault. Fikowski and Vellner finished 2nd and 3rd, respectively, at the 2017 CrossFit Games. The new member on the team is Alessandra Pichelli.
Many may not have realized that Pichelli was actually born in Montreal, Quebec. She moved to Bahrain at the age of 2 and then moved back to Canada when she was 8. She moved to the United States for college. Last year Pichelli had the best finish among fellow Canadians, but did not compete at the Invitational. It is unclear if we declined her invite or if CrossFit elected to go with Michele Letendre who was retiring after the 2016 CrossFit Games season.
Last year’s CrossFit Invitational champions, the Meridian team, only has two returning members. Bjorgvin Gudmundsson and Sara Sigmundsdottir are back. They are joined by Annie Thorisdottir and CrossFit Games rookie Jason Smith.
Smith actually finished one place behind 10th place Jonne Koski. Koski, however, had minor knee surgery two weeks after the CrossFit Games to fix a lingering issue that he had been dealing with for a while. According to Koski, he should be close to 100% by now, but is likely being cautious by not competing in the Invitational.
