Opinion | Granite Games: is this Chandler Smith’s moment to send message heading into 2021 CrossFit Games?

Chandler Smith caught the attention of the CrossFit world at the Atlantic Regionals in 2016 during Event Five, a triplet of running on a Tru Form runner, GHD sit-ups and dead lifts at 405 pounds.

Defending CrossFit Games champion Ben Smith set the pace as athletes entered the final round, but Chandler Smith did everything in his power to chase him down. He ripped 405 off the ground seven times in under 10 seconds and finished just three seconds behind Ben.

Chandler Smith did not make the Games that year, finishing ninth in a competitive region, but he had made his mark in the sport and fans were clamouring to see how he would improve in the years to come.

The next year he lost part of his finger and was forced to take some time off and re-evaluate as some thought we had seen the last of him. It turns out that was not the case. Not only did he find a way to make it work, he’s been able to accomplish more post injury.

In the past two years, he has competed at three Sanctionals and finished in the top five in all of them (fifth place at Rogue in 2019, fourth place at Rogue – which was technically not a Sanctional – in 2020, and first place at the Mayhem Classic in 2020). He has also qualified for the games in the past two seasons.

In 2019, he was one of the last athletes cut on Saturday morning before the final 10 athletes were allowed to finish the competition on their own (he took 15th that year ahead of Patrick Vellner and Lukas Hogberg, who had both been podium finishers the year before). In 2020, Chandler was painstakingly close to again making it through the drastic cut (from 30 down to five) after Stage One. He took sixth place, missing the opportunity to compete live in California in Stage Two by just two points.