Reebok Names the Fittest Man and Woman on Earth
After four months of competition, Rich Froning Jr. has been named the Fittest Man on Earth and Annie Thorisdottir has been named the Fittest Woman on Earth at the 2011 Reebok|CrossFit Games.
Froning Jr, from Cookeville, Tennessee, USA, and Thorisdottir, from Kopavogur, Iceland, earned their titles after beating the 50 male and female finalists from the initial field of 27,000 competitors over the course of ten workouts at the Reebok|CrossFit Games, which took place from July 29-31 at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California.
In addition to the title, both athletes won $250,000.
This year’s competition, the fifth annual CrossFit Games and the first in which Reebok was the title sponsor, challenged the athletes to push both their bodies and their minds to the limit.
The winning athletes proved their physical fitness by achieving the highest total score in a total of 10 events which featured a combination of tasks including swimming, running, rowing, biking, performing Olympic lifts, climbing ropes, completing gymnastic movements throwing softballs, and moving large loads long distances quickly.
In addition to the workouts, athletes were tested time and again mentally; in most cases, they had only an hour to prepare for each workout, and sometimes they had only two minutes to rest after one workout before starting the next one.
This weekend’s finals marked the culmination of a three-stage competition that began in March with the Reebok|CrossFit Open Series, which featured more than 27,000 competitors from around the world who were fighting for a place in one of 17 regional competitions.
At the Reebok|CrossFit Regionals, the top 60 men, 60 women and 30 teams in the region competed for three days to make it to the Reebok|CrossFit Games. This weekend’s field consisted of no more than three men, three women and three teams from each region.
Reebok is a leading worldwide designer, marketer and distributor of sports, fitness and casual footwear, apparel and equipment.
