Photograph by Grant Moxley
Name a sport where an athlete performs heavy deadlifts, a 25-foot handstand walk, and 20 ring muscle-ups in one workout. If you said CrossFit—you’re correct. The sport is uniquely varied, combining strength, functional movements, gymnastics, and cardio all into one.
While it was created as a form of functional fitness that translates to everyday life, its competitive track takes fitness to the extreme. The CrossFit Games is the culmination of the competitive season (beginning with the Open, an annual global online competition every CrossFitter participates in), where the winner is crowned “Fittest on Earth.”
Sam Briggs started CrossFit in its early years and was instantly hooked. In 2010, she made her first of 11 total Games appearances. After an injury, a sabbatical from her firefighting career, and moving to West Chester from the U.K., Briggs won Fittest on Earth in 2013 and 2023 in the age 40–44 division.
When the Games introduced a short stature division in 2021, Northern Kentucky native Tim Murray, who is 4-foot-5, was in. “I’ve always been a competitor and had the mindset of wanting to win,” he says. He won Fittest on Earth in 2022 and 2023, and second place in 2024 and 2025.
Short stature is one of 16 adaptive divisions that enables athletes with physical, visual, or intellectual impairments to compete. “People say this is hard. Try it without the use of one arm or leg,” says Murray. “Excuses are invalid.”
Photograph by Grant Moxley
Both athletes experience going to a “dark place” during tough workouts. Some Games events are extremely challenging, like the 2015 Murph that Briggs won (one-mile run, 100 pull-ups, 200 pushups, 300 squats, and another one-mile run, all in a weighted vest). Some athletes collapsed along the way from heat stroke. “I wasn’t frightened of my body hurting,” she says. “I was always happy to push more.”
Training is about preparing for anything—Games events are almost never the same, and new movements might even be created to test athletes on their preparedness.
Briggs trained on a full-time schedule. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday included multiple high-intensity workouts, lift sessions (Olympic lifting or powerlifting), and skill work (muscle ups or handstand walks). Tuesdays were light training days, while Thursday and Sunday were dedicated to active recovery. On Saturdays, she replicated Games events and attacked them as if in competition.
Murray, meanwhile, goes straight to his Newport gym every day after work for a two-hour session that includes mobility work, strength training, a main workout, and a skill session.
“It’s extreme to be able to compete the way I do, with everything else going on in my life,” he says. “But if you put the work and the time in, you’ll always improve.”
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