The Central Regional will take place in Nashville, Tennessee, Music City Center on May 25-27, 2018.
Mat Fraser
Mat Fraser in action
The 2x fittest man on earth needs no introduction. The real question is just how dominant will he be this year? The 2016 victory was three years in the making, after he took back-to-back second-place finishes in 2014 and 2015. Fraser backed up his 2016 title with a historic victory in 2016, winning by the largest margin of victory in Games History.
Beating his own mark he set the year prior. In 2014, Fraser’s debut Games appearance, he earned the Rookie of the Year award for his efforts. Known for his hatred of second place, Fraser was unsatisfied with his consecutive silver finishes, and though he won the worldwide Open in 2015 and swept his region (EAST) with a dominate performance in 2016, it wasn’t until he stood atop the podium at the Games in 2016 that he showed signs of celebration.
The champion is looking unstoppable.
A former U.S. Olympic Weightlifting team hopeful, with a return from major back surgery in 2011, retired from his weightlifting career and has been a CrossFit athlete since 2012.
Brooke Wells
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Three-time individual CrossFit Games athlete Brooke Wells made a name for herself at the 2015 Central Regional, which she won at 19 years old. It was her first individual regional appearance. In 2014, she competed with team 540 Beefy of CrossFit 540 at the North Central Regional. She went on to take 16th in her debut Games appearance in 2015.
She proved herself again in 2016, taking third at the Central Regional but catapulting to sixth at the Games with six top-five finishes and one event win. Brooke competed at the 2017 Games with a broken finger, which she did not reveal until after the competition was over.
Brooke in action
Wells is a student at the University of Missouri and a trainer at CrossFit Fringe in Columbia.
Scott Panchik
Scott
6x CrossFit Games veteran he has qualified for every CrossFit Games since 2012. Never finishing below sixth, he took back-to-back fourth-place finishes in 2012 and 2013, missing the podium by just one place each year. Victor of the 2015 and 2016 Central Regionals, Panchik is known for his mental fortitude, always believing he can win while remaining unruffled by setbacks. A collegiate running back, Panchik owns CrossFit Mentality in Mentor, Ohio.
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Kristi Eramo
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In 2016, Kristi Eramo took eighth place in her debut CrossFit Games appearance, the best finish of any female rookie at the Games that year. In 2017 she finished thirteenth. Previously an endurance athlete—in addition to her collegiate swimming career, she took seventh in her age division in the 2011 USA Age Group National Championship Olympic Distance triathlon—Eramo has demonstrated consistent improvement, ascending from 16th in her first regional appearance in 2014 to 10th in 2015, qualifying for the Games in 2016 with a fifth-place regional finish.
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A trainer at Four Barrel CrossFit East in Louisville, Kentucky, and an accountant by day, she shared the field with her mother, Donna Eramo, who took 10th in the Masters Women 55-59 Division at the 2016 Reebok CrossFit Games.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Be8TnobHqU9/?hl=en&taken-by=kristieramo
Alex Anderson
Eighth at the 2017 CrossFit Games, Alex Anderson is a consistently high performer at Regionals and his strength and experience will give him an edge going into this weekend. he transitioned to the individual competition in 2014, making his debut Games appearance one year later with a 13th-place finish and improving to 11th in 2016 and 8th at the 2017 Reebok CrossFit Games.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bgl4m4Zl7Hq/?hl=en&taken-by=alexanderson29
A member of one of CrossFit’s fittest families, Anderson is one of three brothers to compete at the CrossFit Games—Jacob Anderson competed alongside him in 2016, and ZA Anderson took 10th at the Games in 2013—and his father, Steve Anderson, won the Masters Men 55-59 Division in 2011.
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SCHEDULE FOR THE 2018 CROSSFIT REGIONALS
THREE WEEKENDS: MAY 18-JUNE 3
There have been some big changes made to the CrossFit Games Regional format in 2018. Get all the details here.
Week 2: May 25-27, 2018
Central Regional: Nashville, Tennessee, Music City Center
West Regional: Del Mar, California, Del Mar Arena
Latin America Regional: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Arena Carioca 1
Week 3: June 1-3, 2018
Atlantic Regional: West Palm Beach, Florida, Palm Beach County Convention Center
Meridian Regional: Madrid, Spain, Caja Mágica
Pacific Regional: Sydney, Australia, Qudos Bank Arena
For more information about the CrossFit Regionals, the following text is from games.crossfit.com.
The fittest men, women and teams from each region of the world advance to the second stage of the CrossFit Games season: the Regionals.
CrossFit splits the world into 18 regions. There are eight regions in the United States (North East, Mid Atlantic, South East, Central East, North Central, South Central, West Coast and South West) and 10 international regions (Canada East, Canada West, South America, Central America, Asia, Australasia, Middle East Africa, Europe North, Europe South and Europe Central). Athletes are placed in their region during Open registration based on their residence as of Jan. 1 of that year.
To qualify, the Regional competitors have to prove they are their region’s fittest athletes by competing in the five-week, five-workout online Open and finishing well in the overall standings. The number of athletes who qualify from each region varies and the 18 regions feed into nine Regional competitions, as broken down below.
East Regional
– North East (25 individuals, 20 teams to qualify from Open)
– Canada East (15 individuals, 10 teams to qualify from Open)
Atlantic Regional
– Mid Atlantic (20 individuals, 15 teams to qualify from Open)
– South East (20 individuals, 15 teams to qualify from Open)
Central Regional
– Central East (20 individuals, 15 teams to qualify from Open)
– North Central (20 individuals, 15 teams to qualify from Open)
South Regional
– South West (20 individuals, 15 teams to qualify from Open)
– South Central (20 individuals, 15 teams to qualify from Open)
West Regional
– West Coast (35 individuals, 25 teams to qualify from Open)
– Canada West (5 individuals, 5 teams to qualify from Open)
Latin America Regional
– Central America (15 individuals, 10 teams to qualify from Open)
– South America (25 individuals, 20 teams to qualify from Open)
Europe Regional
– Europe North (20 individuals, 15 teams to qualify from Open)
– Europe Central (20 individuals, 15 teams to qualify from Open)
Meridian Regional
– Europe South (20 individuals, 15 teams to qualify from Open)
– Middle East Africa (20 individuals, 15 teams to qualify from Open)
Pacific Regional
– Asia (10 individuals, 7 teams to qualify from Open)
– Australasia (30 individuals, 23 teams to qualify from Open)
Forty men, 40 women and 40 teams will advance to the 2018 Reebok CrossFit Games. Those spots are divvied up among the nine Regionals as follows:
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The top five men, women and teams will advance from the East, Atlantic, Central, South, West, Europe and Pacific Regionals.
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The top four men, women and teams will advance from the Meridian Regional.
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The top male, female and team will advance from the Latin America Regional.
All Regional competitors face the same workouts, whether they’re in Del Mar, California, or Madrid, Spain.
Competitors care about how they place relative to their peers at their Regional, since that’s what determines how many points they earn and where they’ll rank in the overall standings. Claiming first in an event earns an athlete 100 points, second earns 95 points, third 90, fourth 85, fifth 80 and sixth 75. The scale then drops by 2-point increments for seventh through 30th, and then by 1-point increments from 30th through 50th. The athlete with the most points will claim first in the overall standings; the top five athletes overall at the end of the weekend earn the right to advance to the CrossFit Games.
All Games qualifiers will receive a piece of the season’s prize purse. All cash prizes are paid in U.S. dollars.
Individual Division (men and women receive equal prize money)
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First Place: $300,000
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Second Place: $100,000
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Third Place: $75,000
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Fourth Place: $50,000
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Fifth Through Eighth Place: $35,000, $30,000, $27,000 and $25,000, respectively
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Ninth Through 20th Place: $23,000, $21,000, $18,000, $16,000, $14,000, $13,000, $12,000, $11,000, $10,000, $9,000, $8,000 and $7,000, respectively
Team Division (prize per team)
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First Place: $100,000
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Second Place: $60,000
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Third Place: $30,000
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Fourth Place: $20,000
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Fifth Place: $15,000
Drug testing is required for any individual athlete or team to advance to the Games or to collect prizes.
