2016 Games Banter...starting off with Murph

[Brad Gerbrandt]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say Briggs won't be at the Games this year. It's Monday morning and apparently she is still in the UK.

As for predictions, with the events announced so far: murph, shuttle run, handstand walk, I'm not sure everyone's favourite's on the guys side (Smith, Fraser, Bridges) are going to run away with it. There are plenty of guys that good on their hands and none of them are in the top tier for their all our sprint ability. This will be an interesting weekend. I do realize that a lot is still left TBA. I'm sure there will be a lot of classic CrossFit that hasn't been announced.

[Chris Lomen]

Just saw on Instagram that Briggs just made it to the US! Close call. Wouldn't have been the same without her.

Wish they'd announce a few more events...how am I supposed to block my work calendar?!

[Beth Martino]

Originally Posted by Chris Lomen

Wish they'd announce a few more events...how am I supposed to block my work calendar?!

I just blocked off everything from noon onwards (being on the east coast, I still have the morning to get actual work done). My gym has a teen competing so I'll be obsessively watching. I'll tell the IT department that I'm just warming them up for when the Olympics are on next month.

[Brad Gerbrandt]

That's awesome. It was posted to instagram after I made my post here. I guess she left it offline until her feet hit the ground! I wonder how the lack of acclimation will affect her.

I took Friday off so I could watch, but I know I'm not going to get a lot done with Master's and Teen's going on starting tomorrow.

[Steven Ngo]

it's Games day!

[Chris Lomen]

Originally Posted by Steven Ngo

it's Games day!

Best week of the year

[Chris Lomen]

500m swim -- all 80 athletes in one heat!

I think it's going to be pretty cool -- not many opportunities for the guys and gals to go head to head in anything. Obviously they're not scored against one another but I think we'll see some of the guys get smoked by the stronger female swimmers. Top picks for me are Khan Porter and Kara Webb.

The new Murph format will make things interesting. I think we'll see some blazing fast times, and possibly some people really racing on that last run. Hopefully without anyone passing out or wrecking the rest of their weekend. No reason to think BKG and Briggs won't repeat on this one, but who knows.

Clean Pyramid is going to be intense. Regionals had a lot more spacing out between athletes since in a lot of heats not everyone was getting very far. I think we'll see a lot more frantic finishes on the last couple bars in the Games. Gotta got with Webb for the ladies again, Smith or Fraser for the guys. Dark horse is Travis Williams.

Excited to see what else Castro has up his sleeve. Wouldn't be surprised to see another throwback workout from a past Games since it's the 10th year.

[Christopher Morris]

Originally Posted by Chris Lomen

Best week of the year

Yeah, man! I've got a half day on Thursday and Friday off. It worked out for me to maximize my CrossFit viewing.

Originally Posted by Chris Lomen

500m swim -- all 80 athletes in one heat!

I think it's going to be pretty cool -- not many opportunities for the guys and gals to go head to head in anything. Obviously they're not scored against one another but I think we'll see some of the guys get smoked by the stronger female swimmers. Top picks for me are Khan Porter and Kara Webb.

The new Murph format will make things interesting. I think we'll see some blazing fast times, and possibly some people really racing on that last run. Hopefully without anyone passing out or wrecking the rest of their weekend. No reason to think BKG and Briggs won't repeat on this one, but who knows.

Clean Pyramid is going to be intense. Regionals had a lot more spacing out between athletes since in a lot of heats not everyone was getting very far. I think we'll see a lot more frantic finishes on the last couple bars in the Games. Gotta got with Webb for the ladies again, Smith or Fraser for the guys. Dark horse is Travis Williams.

Excited to see what else Castro has up his sleeve. Wouldn't be surprised to see another throwback workout from a past Games since it's the 10th year.

You're picking winners for individual events. Here are my picks for overall winner at the end of the weekend:

Webb
Sigmundsdottir
Davidsdottir

Fraser
Bridges
Smith

I've been a fan of Kara Webb, hoping she'll win the games since the year she had to withdraw when she was at the top of the leaderboard. The Icelandic women are unbelievable too.

Josh Bridges has been crazy serious about his training this year. He will do well, no doubt. I wonder how much these 2nd place finishes have pushed Mat Fraser for this year's training.

[Brad Gerbrandt]

I think we'll see some rookies do well in the swim.

Bridges and Briggs for Murph. Depending on the weather, we may see some sandbagging.

I'm not sure if Dave was just trying to scare them last night. Looking back at events like Pendleton, Murph last year, sandbag sprint in 09, double banger... there's not a lot left to really surprise them with. I hope it's not just a tonne of volume. Perhaps there will be a surprise, middle of the night event??? Maybe one that really pits athlete against athlete?

[Steven Ngo]

Sure is a lot of teal in the shoes / clothes