Canadian Jeffrey Adler Wins 2023 CrossFit Games Mens Title
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By Roger “Rock” Lockridge
We don’t usually cover CrossFit, but we do cover Canadian excellence in athletics, and we saw that play out at the sport’s biggest event.
The 2023 CrossFit Games was held in Madison, Wisconsin on August 1st through 6th, and at the end of the week, a new Fittest Man on Earth was crowned. That new man is from Canada. Montreal, Quebec native Jeffrey Adler defeated two-time defending champion Justin Medeiros as well as runner-up Patrick Vellner (also representing Canada) and 37 other elite competitors to claim the title. The week featured 12 different events that provided unique challenges of strength and endurance, and Adler won two of those events. Outside of a 25th place finish in Event 2, he finished no lower than 15th in any other event. The consistency is what helped him score the most points based on performance to take the victory.
Adler is the first man from Canada to win the title since inaugural champion James Fitzgerald won the title in 2007. He’s also the first non-American to win the elite competition since Mikko Salo of Finland won it in 2009. This was Adler’s fifth time competing in the Games, and he had previously never finished higher than fifth prior to this year. He is the sport’s ninth champion since the event started in 2007. Adler had also won the CrossFit Open and North American Semifinal competitions earlier this year, which allowed him to compete in the Games. Unlike bodybuilding, even the champion must requalify for the Games.
There were almost two Canadian champions this year. In the women’s contest, Emma Lawson was in the lead going into the final event of the weekend, but Hungary’s Laura Horvath managed to overtake Lawson in the final event of the weekend to take the title on the women’s side. This was the first time a new Women’s champion was crowned in seven years. Six-time champion Tia-Clair Toomey withdrew from the competition due to becoming a mother.
From a broader perspective, Adler’s championship is just the latest accomplishment that has established Canada as a powerhouse country in strength and physique sports. You may remember that earlier this year, Mitchell Hooper won both the World’s Strongest Man and Arnold Strongman Classic to become the number one man in the sport of strongman. Of course, the world of bodybuilding has two current Canadian champs – four-time Classic Physique Olympia champion Chris Bumstead and two-time Fitness Olympia winner Missy Truscott. This may be the first time that Canada has reigning world champions in bodybuilding, strongman/strongwoman, and CrossFit at the same time.
Replays of the CrossFit Games can be seen on the CrossFit Games YouTube channel. Everyone at Muscle Insider congratulates Jeffrey Adler for becoming the 2023 Fittest Man on Earth.
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