This post will be discussing only the women’s side of competition. Men’s post will follow shortly.
Instead of Regionals and instead of Sanctionals we now have Quarterfinals and Semifinals. Although it is a slightly newer format Semifinals closely resembles Regionals in many ways.
Depending on your citizenship and your current location, each athlete that moved on from Quarterfinals was placed in their respective Semifinal competition, and this seeding makes for some interesting matchups.
Below we have included the “rivalries” or best matchups to watch in each competition based on past performances and recent Quarterfinals. Semifinals start May 28th.
Carol-Ann Reason-Thibault VS Chyna Cho
Starting off with the first Semifinal on the list, we believe this is going to be a competition between these two Games veterans.
Reason-Thibault has been to the Crossfit Games 6x and has only finished outside of the top 20 once.
- 2015 – 27th
- 2016 – 14th
- 2017 – 15th
- 2018 – 19th
- 2019 – 16th
- 2020 – 11th
Cho has also been to the Games 6x and has also only finished outside the top 20 once.
- 2014 – 15th
- 2015 – 6th
- 2016 – 17th
- 2017 – 17th
- 2018 – 21st
- 2019 – 1st (Team Mayhem)
Tia Clair-Toomey VS Haley Adams VS Brooke Wells VS Amanda Barnhart
Toomey will no doubt be the favorite here, but wow is this Semifinal packed with talent. All 4 of these women finished in the top 10 at the 2020 Games, and 3 of them in the top 5.
This will be a rematch of the 2020 Crossfit Games where Adams finished 4th and Wells 5th. However, because she wasn’t at the Ranch as part of the final 5, many people forget that Barnhart finished 7th overall last year.
That’s 40% of the top 10 women last year in one Semifinal. Anything could happen and there’s sure to be some surprises.
If you can only watch one Semifinal this would be the one to watch, as it will basically be a preview for this year’s Games.
Related: Crossfit Games Pound-for-Pound Athlete Strength Rankings
Kristi Eramo-O’Connell VS Emma Cary VS Mallory O’brien
Kristi Eramo is the overwhelming favorite to win this Semifinal, and for good reason. Eramo has been to the Games 5x and has only finished outside of the top 10 once.
- 2016 – 8th
- 2017 – 13th
- 2018 – 9th
- 2019 – 7th (Team Invictus X)
- 2020 – 9th
If you don’t know the other 2 names, it’s because they are both rookies and they are also both only 17 years old.
However, Emma Cary finished 2nd overall in the entire world during the Open and Mallory O’brien finished 5th overall. They could shock people.
Potential underdog surprises: Alessandra Pichelli & Steph Chung
Kari Pearce VS Bethany Shadburne VS Danielle Brandon VS Dani Speegle
This four way battle could easily be one of the most exciting to watch throughout all Semifinals.
Kari Pearce will be the favorite of course, coming off of her 3rd place finish at the 2020 Games, and her 5th top 5 finish in her career.
But again, just because these other athletes weren’t in the top 5 last year they are flying under the radar for some people, and that means they’re sure to upset some predictions.
- Speegle finished 13th overall in 2020 (26th in 2019)
- Brandon finished 15th overall in 2020 (10th in 2019)
- Shadburne finished 20th overall in 2020 (8th in 2019)
Although we believe Pearce will still take the victory, we don’t believe it will be an easy road for her.
Sister of Brooke Wells, (Sydney Wells) also appears in this Semifinal.
Katrin Davidsdottir VS Sam Briggs VS Kristin Holte
The battle of consistency goes down in Germany. All 3 of these athletes are constantly near the very top, and don’t look like they’re stopping now. Since we all know who these 3 are, let’s simply look at some of their results.
Davidsdottir
- 2020 – 2nd (6th straight finish in top 5)
- 2019 – 4th
- 2018 – 3rd
- 2017 – 5th
- 2016 – 1st
- 2015 – 1st
Briggs
- 2020 – 25th
- 2019 – 17th
- 2018 – 2nd (women 35-39)
- 2017 – 9th
- 2016 – 4th
- 2015 – 4th
- 2013 – 1st
Holte
- 2020 – 6th (4th straight top 10)
- 2019 – 2nd
- 2018 – 7th
- 2017 – 7th
- 2016 – 12th
- 2015 – 17th
- 2013 – 16th
If we had to predict the outcome right now, we would say (1st – Davidsdottir, 2nd – Holte, 3rd – Briggs)
Related: 3 Reasons Why Crossfit Athletes Build So Much Muscle
Annie Thorisdottir VS Laura Horvath
This could perhaps have the slimmest margin of victory of any Semifinal as there is no clear favorite.
Horvath is coming off of her victory in the Europe Quarterfinal and a 24th place finish at the 2020 Games.
Thorisdottir is coming back from pregnancy, and a 9th place Quarterfinal finish.
Horvath has still been performing well, but she has slowly been finishing worse at the Games since her rookie year 2nd place podium.
Thorisdottir always seems to perform best when it really matters, and we think she could give Horvath problems.
Kara Saunders VS Laura Clifton VS Madeline Sturt
No disrespect to the other athletes, but we don’t think Saunders will have any problems walking away with the victory here.
Saunders finished 8th overall in 2020, 4th in 2018, and 2nd in 2017. She only missed 2019 due to pregnancy, but it looks like she already back to form.
If there are any athletes that could possibly give her some trouble, it could be Laura Clifton and Madeline Sturt.
Clifton has only been to the Games once, but that happened to be last year where she finished 26th overall. She also recently finished 3rd in the Oceania Quarterfinal, behind only Toomey and Saunders.
Sturt finished 6th overall in the Quarterfinal, but has been to the Games 4x with a best place finish of 20th in 2018.
Alexsandra Buzunova VS Svetlana Kubyshkina
Buzunova recently won the Asia Quarterfinal, but Kubyshkina was only 18 points behind.
Kubyshkina also happened to finish 79th overall in the 2021 Open, whereas Buzunova finished 165th worldwide.
The Asia Semifinal is no doubt going to be a Russian battle as about half of the athletes are from Russia.
Related: An In-Depth Look at The Fittest Man in Russia
Larissa Cunha VS Melina Rodriguez VS Sasha Nievas
Cunha recently won the South America Quarterfinal where she did not have one finish lower than 5th place in any event, so she is sure to be the favorite heading into this Semifinal.
Rodriguez was not far behind, just 18 points. While Nievas was only 4 points behind her.
These athletes also had a great 2020 Open (Cunha – 23rd, Nievas – 25th)
Fun Fact: out of 29 women competing in this Semifinal, 18 are from Brazil.
Michelle Basnett VS Dina Swift VS Michelle Merand
The Africa Quarterfinal was extremely close, but ultimately Basnett walked away with the victory.
- 1st) Basnett – 31 points
- 2nd) Swift – 39 pts.
- 3rd) Merand – 42 pts.
Basnett had two 1st place finishes, but all 3 of these athletes were consistent throughout competition.
However, Merand had the best performance in the Open where she finished 127th worldwide.
And there it is. That is the full list of all 10 Semifinals that begin May 28th. We hope you enjoyed this article, and if you did, please share it and give us a follow on Instagram for more content like this.
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