James Sprague Wins Event 1, River Dee at 2026 CrossFit Games

The 2026 Rogue Invitational kicked off with a brutal trip down The River Dee. 

Event 1 – River Dee

7 Rounds:

• 11 Calorie Ski
• 7 Wall Walk
• 11 Calorie Ski
• 7 Devil’s Press (50/35)

In an interesting twist, the Devil’s Press reps had to be completed with special Rogue Thompson Fatbells. 

Heat 1

In the first heat Fiebig from Germany, Lightfoot from the UK, and Ibarra from the USA fought for first place right out the gate, with Ibarra slightly leading through the first few rounds. The English athlete managed to catch up, but the American athlete held on to his razor thin lead. 

Ibarra looked smooth and composed throughout, speeding up as he entered the final round. 

However, Lightfoot took the lead as they exited the ski erg. He drove hard at the end and crossed the line in first with a time of 19.20.32.

Fiebig finished in third place, Panchik in fourth, Haapalainen in fifth. Rookie Ackermann rounded out the workout in last place. 

Heat 2

In the second heat, Garard was hit with a no-rep on the wall walks, which dropped him down the rankings as Sprague, Pepper and Hopper all came out hot and set a fast early pace. 

Chandler Smith is the only man to have competed at every single Rogue Invitational. 

Hopper has 9 career event wins at The Rogue Invitational under his belt. He took third in 2024. For the reigning champ, 5.5 is Jeff Adler’s average event finish at the Rogue Invitational. 

Pepper and Sprague, both Brute athletes, were neck and neck as they approached the mid-point of the first event. 

Hopper, who was comfortably in third, is also an athlete from the Brute camp. Sprague started to pick up the pace as he entered round 5. A no-rep on the Devil’s Press cost Pepper dearly and allowed the current CrossFit Games champion to make up even more ground. 

Pro Tip: Sprague checked every rep for full overhead lockout with his judge before he lowered the weights back to the ground. Try doing the same to avoid no-reps when you compete.

Sprague hit the final ski erg hard and sprinted onto the last set of Devil’s Press. He crossed the finish line and thumped the buzzer to secure a winning time of 18.29.07. 

Pepper scored 18.51.81 to wrap up second in the heat, followed by Hopper, Adler and Mertens. 

Sprague picks up his first event win at The Rogue Invitational and locks in 100 points. In the post event interview he said he wanted to become the first men to win The CrossFit Games, Rogue Invitational and WODAPALOOZA in the same year.

River Dee Event 1 Results