Three sanctioned events take place this weekend as the Road to Madison hits its highest speed yet. But, while Brazil and Australia will have big names, the biggest will be in Ohio for perhaps the most star-studded non-Games competition in history.

While the past few weeks have given us a look at the individual field for the 2019 Granite Games, a stacked team competition has flown under the radar. The penultimate chance to qualify for the 2019 Reebok CrossFit Games will feature several loaded teams making a late push to earn a spot in Madison.

One of the many reasons people in the fitness community enjoy CrossFit is that they have discovered world-class athletes who are entertaining to watch and inspiring to follow. Thanks to the platform provided by the CrossFit Games, new stars have emerged and those opportunities can lead these elite competitors to develop their own brands and build followings that are both large and meaningful.

See more details here.

See more details here.

International contests continue to hold the spotlight into the month of May as the sanctioned event schedule heads to Iceland for the Reykjavik CrossFit Championship, the nation’s first qualifying event.

See more details here.

The latest Sanctional on the schedule took the eyes of the fitness community to Italy for the 2019 CrossFit Italian Showdown. There are fewer opportunities to qualify for the CrossFit Games in Madison, Wisconsin, which means every rep, step, and motion in competition could be the difference between victory and defeat. More than 1,000 athletes showed up at this event, and thanks to an elimination style format, the field diminished until the elite of the elite were left standing with the final five competing in the last event.

Over the course of the past few years in the competitive landscape of CrossFit, or “functional fitness,” events we’ve gotten very used to the idea that every point matters. That was definitely the case in the Granite Games Open as the unofficial results are in and it came down to no more than five points separating several athletes around the cutoff for the 35 qualifying positions as the review process begins.

Nine Sanctioned events remain for those making a late push for a qualifying position to the 2019 Reebok CrossFit Games, and as the picture from the Open clears, the window is closing for several top-name athletes and teams to earn a berth to Madison. This weekend, two of the final nine events take place as the international stage gets the spotlight in Milan and Shanghai.