Late Wednesday night Dave Castro shared another event that we will see at the CrossFit Games. This time, for individuals only, the barbell will be back in the form of a one rep max snatch.
Of course, we only know that athletes will be asked to snatch a heavy barbell, but there are a ton of questions that still need to be answered. We don’t know when the top CrossFit athletes in the world will be doing this event. We don’t know if they will get two attempts, or three, or a limited amount of time or if it will be a snatch ladder. We don’t know if it will be immediately following an event like 2015’s 1RM snatch at regionals where it immediately followed a handstand walk.
With that said, athletes like Mat Fraser, Ben Smith and Elijah Muhammad figure to do well in the event on the men’s side. On the women’s side, Kara Webb, Camille Leblanc-Bazinet and Katrin Davidsdottir are among some of the favorites.
Here is a look back at the 1RM (or ladder) events in Games history:
2016: Ranch Deadlift Ladder and Squat Clean Pyramid
2015: Snatch Speed Ladder and 1RM Clean & Jerk
2014: 1RM Overhead Squat and Speed Clean Ladder
2013: Clean & Jerk Ladder
2012: Clean Ladder
2011: 1RM Snatch (part of Skills 2 Event)
2010: 1RM Shoulder-to-Overhead
In the Snatch Speed Ladder in 2015, Jon Pera took 1st, but he was followed by Ben Smith, Mat Fraser and Elijah Muhammad (see why we predicted those three earlier?).
On the women’s side, Katrin Davidsdottir took 2nd, Tia-Clair Toomey took 6th and Sara Sigmundsdottir placed 9th. This is the same year that Kara Webb, Annie Thorisddottir and many others were devastated earlier in the day by Murph and Camille Leblanc-Bazinet was no repped for lack of depth in the first round.
To find the last 1RM Snatch at the Games, we have to go back to 2011 when the event was just one of three parts of the Skills 2 Event. Athletes had two minutes to establish a one-rep max. To put into perspective how far the athletes have come in six years, the winning lift that year for men was 265 pounds by Spencer Hendel and Ben Smith.
For the women, Lindsey Valenzuela won the event with a 165-pound snatch. Thorisdottir tied for 2nd with 155 pounds. Back then, Leblanc-Bazinet finished with a 125-pound snatch.
In recent years, we have seen two “max effort” barbell events in the form of a ladder, race or one rep max. One of the notable barbell lifts missing is a thruster. Could a thruster ladder or speed thruster pyramid be in the cards this year?
