Brooke Wells’ Quest for Ninth CrossFit Games Dubious at North America East Semifinal

Photo Credit: Ava Kitzi

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After coming off arguably her best CrossFit season last year, placing fifth in the world after returning from elbow surgery and then writing a book about her comeback, Brooke Wells’ season hangs in the balance at this weekend’s North America East Semifinal in Orlando, FL.

The eight-time CrossFit Games athlete has visibly struggled the entire weekend, and she enters Event Four in 26th overall, 15 spots out of a qualification position. 

The details: During Event One on Friday, she wasn’t able to hang with the leaders. She stopped twice on the 2,000-meter AirRunner, and saw the medical team for treatment on her left foot after the event. She placed 17th overall.

• In the following event, Wells had a hard time stringing together the ring complexes—one toes-to-bar, one muscle-up and one ring dip—eventually finishing 34th overall.
• And on Saturday morning, during Semifinals Linda—a purely strength event where we would expect Wells to excel—she appeared to come out too hot on the first two rounds, before her pace ground to a halt by the time she got to the round of sixes. Until then, Wells led the charge in her heat, but then began struggling on the 60-pound dumbbell bench presses, picking up a number of no reps in the process. A slew of athletes passed her, and Wells failed to finish before the time cap, picking up another 30th place position. 

The big picture: Wells was considered as solid as they come to qualify to the Games this summer, but with four events to go, she’s 61 points out of 11th place—the cut line for Games invites—proving that even eight-time Games athletes are human.

That being said, on paper at least, the next two events featuring snatches and running look like they should be in Wells’ wheelhouse, so we’re not quite ready to count her out just yet.

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