CrossFit: Pursuit of the world’s most resilient athletes

ByRhemney Aoko

First Published: July 11, 2026, 9:15 AM ET

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA — CrossFit marks two decades as the ultimate test for the fittest man and woman on earth. The 2026 competition marks a milestone and will be presented by the Air National Guard. The games have defined excellence as unstoppable and a ground for bringing communities together in relentless pursuit of fitness. The best 30 women, 30 men, and 20 teams are set to start championship competition from July 22 to July 26. These are categories that managed to qualify for the first three stages of CrossFit. These are the CrossFit Open, quarterfinals, and semifinals levels.

Individual performances are anticipated to start on the first day, a day earlier than team competitions, which are to commence on the 23rd outside the SAP Center, the day of the CrossFit block party. There will be the advantage of watching live streams from various offsites across the Bay Area with the qualification of being an R+ experience holder. These streams will cover only individual competitions with added high-end experience through the event period.

Either one-day or multiple-day tickets are available, and one of the offsites is Morgan Hill Outdoor Sports Complex with the benefit of a semi-private entrance, food and drinks with a VIP menu, a meet and greet with a special guest on specific days, and swag from CrossFit vendors.

Tiar-Clair Toomey Won the women's championship in MVP arena, Albany, NewYork, USA on November 19, 2025 at 12:15 PM. Photo: Instagram. © Instagram

Toomey won her eighth title at the 2025 CrossFit Games. She has more wins than all athletes in the history of CrossFit. Learning about CrossFit in 2013, by the following year she qualified for regionals. After two years she qualified for the CrossFit Games, though as a runner-up to Katrín Tanja Davíðsdóttir. In her second game in 2016 with Katrin Tanja Davíðsdóttir, she still came second, as she managed to hold a strong challenge to her.

Since her debut in 2015, Toomey’s first win came in 2017 in a tight fight against fellow Australian Kara Webb. She beat Webb by two points in penalties after Webb’s points had to be dropped due to judgment error. Toomey’s win in 2018 was solid and convincing, with 64 points over second place, Laura Horvath. In 2019, she became the first woman to win three CrossFit games after a large win margin of 195 points over Kristin Holte. Her records show dominance and a step up from her previous performances. In 2020, she managed to beat her challenger Katrín Tanja Davíðsdóttir and won with a marginal victory of 360 points.

She extended her number of titles to five in 2021, winning 15 events with scope points of 1,435. On to 2022 with her sixth title, but in 2023 she announced she could not take part because of pregnancy. Coming back in 2024 and 2025, she retained her position and is set to defend in the coming 2026 competitions.

CrossFit athletes seem to be supernatural beings; they endure physical activities over a broad time across different domains, from walking over the staircases to the next random, unknown, and unknowable physical works. People know fitness when they see it; they presume it to look a certain way, but in 2002, CrossFit came up with a definition of fitness and who is fit. Something outside training programs and fitness gurus’ definitions. CrossFit is about whether you can perform well in various physical activities outside your specialty. Who is fit is measurable and observable across defined parameters of evaluation and tests outside a singular area of fitness expression.

“Performance doesn’t just come from pushing harder every day; in reality, adequate recovery and training are what bring improvement,” said Dr. Andy Galpin a professor and exercise scientist. “We are seeing many different backgrounds joining the CrossFit Games; this will result in even higher levels of performance,” said Justin Medeiros an American two-time CrossFit champion. Nevertheless, the results of Toomey’s defense seem obvious.

At CrossFit, athletes are jacks of all trades and masters of none; the fittest on earth are the ones who will excel at different physical competitions across the greatest ranges of time frames.