Wrapping Up 2024: A Busy Offseason
Written by Kelly Sekulovski
While it might be referred to as the “offseason” there wasn’t much downtime in the past month for the elite Invictus athletes. When competitions like Down Under Championship, Dubai Fitness Championship and the Legends Championship are calling, these athletes have answered.
December Offseason Recap
Down Under Championship
The month kicked off with a bang with the Down Under Championship starting on December 1st. This major offseason competition located all the way in Australia has become an increasingly popular event for US based CrossFit athletes, as well as athletes from all over the world.
After an event 1 win to start off the weekend, the California Gurls consisting of Jessie Smith, Emily Rethwell and Dani Speegle took the rest of the competition by storm. The California Gurls never finished outside of the top 5 and racked up 5 event wins throughout the weekend. It was no surprise when they ended the weekend standing on top of the podium.
Invictus athlete Chandler Smith wasn’t going to let his wife have all the fun down under. He and his team “Ombre Hombres” took third place in the men’s elite teams with 6 top 5 finishes, and 2 event wins from the weekend.
Dubai Fitness Championship
Not long after the fun Down Under, Chandler Smith hopped on a flight to Dubai to compete as an individual in the Dubai Fitness Championship. Also competing in Dubai from December 8th through the 10th was Devyn Kim, one of the members of the Invictus Affiliate Cup Championship team from 2023. Coming off of a huge performance for Team Invictus at the CrossFit Games, Devyn was more ready than ever for Dubai.
12 was the lucky number for both Invictus athletes, as they both finished in 12th place in the men’s and women’s divisions. Chandler collected a 1 top 5 finish throughout the weekend on workout 1, while Devyn snagged 2 top 5 finishes and a tie for 1st place in her last event of the weekend. Safe to say both of these athletes are coming into the season hungry and ready for more after some challenging workouts in Dubai.
Legends Championship
It was the master’s athletes turn to have some fun at the Legends Championship held at Arizona State University from December 7th through the 10th. Invictus rolled DEEP with over 40 athletes total competing at Legends across all the different divisions.
Jenn Short finished in 2nd place for the Women’s 45-49 division after earning 4 top 5 finishes and banking an event win. Litsa Olsson also finished 2nd and Marion Craig in 3rd in their division, Women’s 60-64. Litsa fought hard throughout the weekend to finish 4 events in the top 5, grabbing 2 event wins, and Marion fought hard to finish 4 events in the top 3, grabbing 1 event win. John Hazdovak battled all weekend long for his 2nd place finish in the mens 40-44 division. In 6 of the 8 events he placed in the top 3, showing great consistency!
For the teams at Legends, the 3rd Fittest 40-44 Year Old Woman on Earth Jenn Ryan was joined by teammates Kisha Wilson- a coach at Invictus San Diego, James Free and Heath Moody for Team Mad Apple Masters. The team dominated the entire weekend, winning all but one event. Their other event score? Second. It was no shock they were standing atop the podium at the end of the weekend.
What’s next?
As the athletes look ahead to downtime during the holidays with their families, they know Wodapalooza is rapidly approaching on January 11th. Tune in to see your favorite Invictus athletes throwing down in Miami to close out their “offseason” before the real work begins for the 2024 CrossFit Open!