We don’t have a whole lot of information about the first two announced events yet other than the first is Run-Swim-Run and the second involves a bicycle. But that’s certainly enough to begin looking at the field and looking at who might be licking their chops at these likely endurance-based events.
One of those athletes who looks to be in good shape on these two events is Jonne Koski. Koski has dominated the swim events since making his first appearance in 2014. Here’s a look at Koski’s finishes on the swim events over the past three seasons:
2014 (The Beach): 2nd
2015 (Pier Paddle): 1st
2016 (Ocean Swim): 1st
Koski is also a decent runner and have proven to have endurance on some of the longer events. In 2015, Koski took 5th in Murph. So depending on the ratio of running to swimming, Koski stands to be one of the top favorites heading into the Run-Swim-Run event.
His competition will likely come from Garret Fisher who is known for his excellent running ability (although he did struggle with the Trail Run last year). Brent Fikowski, Mat Fraser and Josh Bridges are also likely to be in hunt.
As for the biking, there is not any historical CrossFit Games data to look at. However, at the 2016 Dubai Fitness Championship Koski won the 32km Bike Ride event. While the event was not on trails, it does show Koski is comfortable and proficient on a bike. It will be interesting to see if the athletes are in fact on trails and how that impacts the athletes.
In that same event, Alex Anderson took 6th and Ricky Garard took 9th. Mat Fraser finished in 12th.
Of course, all of this speculation has focused on Games veterans. Are there any Games rookies that you think has a shot at shaking up the leaderboard on these events?
