This weekend Melbourne, Victoria, Australia will play host to the 2017 Reebok CrossFit Invitational. Now in its sixth year, the event will feature four of the best athletes from four global regions, including the United States, Europe, Canada and the Pacific region. Team USA has won the event 3 of the 5 years; they were defeated by Team World in 2013 (prior to 2014, Team USA competed against the best athletes outside of the U.S, Team World) and by the Europe Team in 2016.
The USA Team
Noah Ohlsen
Scott Panchik
Kari Pearce
Tennil Reed-Beuerlein
Coach: Adam Neiffer
The Canada Team
Brent Fikowski
Patrick Vellner
Carol-Ann Reason-Thibault
Alessandra Pichelli
Coach: Camille Leblanc-Bazinet
The Europe Team
Björgvin Karl Guðmundsson
Jason Smith
Sara Sigmundsdottir
Annie Thorisdottir
Coach: Samantha Briggs
The Pacific Team
Rob Forte
James Newbury (Also the team coach)
Kara Webb
Tia-Clair Toomey
Coach: Samantha Briggs
Our Prediction
This is a tough one as all four teams are stacked with top athletes. With regard to recent individual accolades, the USA and Europe teams are the only groups to feature all four athletes with top ten finishes at the 2017 CrossFit Games. Of course, we’ve seen the importance experience and team unity has played in past Invitationals. On that note, the Pacific Team is the only group to bring back an identical team from 2016. Taking that into account, we’re picking the Europe Team to win the 2017 Reebok CrossFit Invitational as they seem to have the best mix of athletes and team experience—not to mention they’ve got a bit of momentum from their 2016 victory!
How To Watch
The 2017 Reebok CrossFit Invitational gets underway at 4pm AEST (1pm EST). The two-hour competition is set to stream live online at games.crossfit.com
