The Rogue Legends event is back for another year at the 2024 Rogue Invitational.
The 2024 Legends include 16 of the greatest ever in the sport of CrossFit, featuring five athletes who have been crowned Fittest on Earth.
This year’s Legends made a total of 94 appearances at the CrossFit Games, and at least one participated in every CrossFit Games from 2007-2021.
- Among the 16 athletes, all but three have stood on the CrossFit Games podium.
During 11 of the first 15 years of the CrossFit Games, at least one of the 2024 Rogue Invitational Legends finished on the podium.
Let’s take a closer look.
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Rogue Invitational Legends — Women
Annie Sakamoto
In her only appearance as an individual at the CrossFit Games, Annie Sakamoto, one of the original “Nasty Girls,” finished ninth in 2011.
- As a Master’s athlete, Sakamoto has finished on the podium three times, including a first in the 45-49 division in 2021. She is also the namesake of the CrossFit benchmark workout “Annie.”
Kari Pearce
Kari Pearce qualified for the CrossFit Games for seven straight years from 2015 to 2021.
- She had five top-10 finishes in those years, including a memorable third-place finish in 2020, thanks to her dominant event win in the final event, “Atalanta.”
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Kristan Clever
Kristan Clever was the 2010 Fittest Women on Earth and had a second-place finish in 2011.
- She won the inaugural CrossFit Open in 2011 and then became the first athlete to win two CrossFit Opens when she won again the following year.
Kristin Holte
Kristin Holte is an eight-time CrossFit Games athlete and finished in the top 10 five times, including second place in 2019.
- Interestingly, these five top-10 finishes were the final five years of her CrossFit Games career.
Holte is still one of the fittest women in the sport, as she has finished 69th overall in this year’s CrossFit Open.
Her 2024 Open performance was the best in the 35-39-year-old division. Today, she leads Kriger Training, which boasts several 2024 Games athletes and teams.
Margaux Alvarez
Margaux Alvarez was a mainstay at the CrossFit Games with seven straight appearances from 2013 to 2019.
- Her first six years were as an individual, with a best finish of ninth place.
In 2019, she was a member of Invictus X and ended up seventh on the CrossFit Games leaderboard.
Rebecca Voigt Miller
CrossFit’s “Iron Woman,” Rebecca Voigt Miller, has competed at every CrossFit Games since 2008.
- She has 10 individual appearances and six Masters appearances.
Miller had her best year as an individual in 2011 when she finished third. She also had two third-place finishes in the Masters Games in the 35-39-year-old division. In the 40-44 division, she earned second place in 2021 and another third in 2022.
- Miller qualified for the 2020 CrossFit Games, but the age group divisions were canceled due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Samantha Briggs
The “Engine from England” was the Fittest Woman on Earth in 2013 and had three other top-five finishes at the CrossFit Games in her nine individual appearances.
- Briggs podiumed in her two appearances as a Masters athlete at the CrossFit Games, including a first in the 40-44 division in 2023.
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Tanya Wagner
Tanya Wagner only made two appearances at the CrossFit Games but made the most of them.
- In her rookie year of 2008, Wagner finished second. The following year, Wagner would become the Fittest Woman on Earth.
Rogue Invitational Legends — Men
Ben Smith
Ben Smith has 11 CrossFit Games appearances, which included four podium finishes. This was highlighted by his Fittest Man on Earth title in 2015.
- In 2023, he was a member of the CrossFit Krypton team that finished 19th at the Games.
Currently, Smith is coach to two-time defending Rogue Invitational champion Laura Horvath and the Second Fittest Woman on Earth, Gabriela Migala.
Chris Spealler
Chris Spealler competed in the first seven CrossFit Games and had a career-best finish of third in 2010.
- The former Division 1 wrestler entered the Master’s division in 2017, where he earned a third-place finish.
Dan Bailey
Dan Bailey finished in the top 10 in all of his five individual CrossFit Games appearances.
His career-best fourth-place finish happened in his final individual Games appearance in 2015.
- Bailey won the first-ever CrossFit Open in 2011.
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With a background in collegiate sprinting, Bailey had the iconic catching-his-sunglasses-mid-sprint moment during his win in the 2015 Sprint course.
Josh Bridges
Over his six appearances at the CrossFit Games, Josh Bridges had eight event wins, which places him third in career event wins behind only Mat Fraser and Rich Froning Jr.
- In his rookie year in 2011, Bridges was the Second Fittest Man on Earth.
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CrossFit fans, new and old, remember Bridges’ celebration after crossing the finish line to win “Push Pull” at the 2014 CrossFit Games.
Josh Everett
Josh Everett competed at the first three CrossFit Games and stood on the podium in both 2007 and 2008.
- Everett is still active in the CrossFit community, competing in the CrossFit Open every year.
Matt Chan
Matt Chan was a perennial CrossFit Games athlete in the early years of the sport, competing for six consecutive years from 2008 to 2013.
- Chan’s best finish was second place in 2012. He also highlighted his athleticism by winning the NBC’s The Titan Games in 2020.
Mikko Salo
In 2009, Mikko Salo went to Aramos, CA, for his first CrossFit Games and left as the Fittest Man on Earth.
- Salo would compete at the Games the following two years.
Before competing at the CrossFit Games, Salo was a professional football player in the Finnish Premier League.
Tommy Hackenbruck
Tommy Hackenbruck has made seven trips to the CrossFit Games, four as an individual and three as part of a team.
- In his rookie year in 2009, Hackenbruck finished second behind Mikko Salo and had top-10 finishes in 2010 and 2014.
In 2012 and 2013, he was part of the Fittest Team on Earth, “Hack’s Pack” CrossFit Ute. In his final year of competition in 2015, he was a member of the CrossFit Ute team that finished third at the CrossFit Games.
The Bottom Line
The Rogue Invitational Legends is a fan-favorite event that gives some of the best to ever do it a chance to show that the competitive fire is still there.
Getting a chance to see them compete in a fun environment allows the CrossFit world to reminisce about the great moments of the sport’s history.
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Featured image: @rogueinvitational / Instagram
