Opinion | CrossFit: retiring Mat Fraser showed us how to be Games champion with attacking mindset and dedication
- Fraser, who announced his retirement on Tuesday, brought an unparalleled work ethic to the sport
- The five-time winner will be remembered for crushing opponents and records at will, over and over
In 2016, I went to Carson in California to watch the CrossFit Games for the first time. In a stroke of luck, we had seats in the front row to witness the beginning of the most dominant era in the sport.
Many will remember the famous call by Sean Woodland during the Suicide Sprint on Sunday morning of “What cannot this man do?” as the stand-out moment from that weekend for Fraser.
We watched Fraser finish every workout directly in front of us. In what is one of the more controversial events in Games history, the Separator, everyone including Fraser was struggling to meet the standard for the ring handstand push-ups.
But as professional athletes (and champions more specifically) must do, they adapt to circumstances on the fly and find a way to get the job done.
Fraser ended up fourth overall in the event, but it wasn’t his finish that stood out. The final two movements in that workout were 21 overhead squats and 20 burpees over the bar. Fraser approached his bar for the overhead squats trailing Josh Bridges in their heat. The athletes were required to advance the bar after a specific number of reps. Most athletes used that as an opportunity to drop the barbell and reset, but not Fraser.
