Original subtitles

[music playing]

[announcer] Back at the StubHub Center in Carson,

California, we are two events away from crowning

the fittest man on earth.

We're going to start off by talking about the guy

that everybody wants to know.

Can he make it four straight CrossFit Games Championships-- Rich Froning?

[narrator] In sports, legends appear once in a generation.

They are athletes who not only change the way a game is played,

but also, regarded entirely--

Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Pele, Babe Ruth.

In CrossFit, that man is Rich Froning.

In 2014, he stood on the cusp of becoming a legend as he took

the floor at the CrossFit Games for the final time as an individual competitor.

[music playing]

[applause]

Froning was on the brink of being crowned "the fittest man on earth"

for the fourth straight time

and solidifying his legacy as the fittest man in history.

Is Rich Froning the fittest man in history?

Rich, being the fittest man in history.

What do you need to know?

Well, we need to see a snapshot of his physical capabilities

against as many possible physical challenges as you can

dream up, and against as many people as you

can possibly put him against.

Rich is tough to beat.

I think if you're going to beat Rich,

you're going to have to bleed to do it.

Anybody's beatable on any given day.

I mean, he's-- He's been in the game a long time.

Physically, I feel great.

Physically, I feel like I could do

this for another 7 to 10 years.

But mentally, it takes a toll on you.

Mentally, it's-- It's a different, uh, different animal.

So we'll see.

[narrator] Froning's quest for his fourth straight CrossFit Games Championship

began four months earlier in the World Wide Open--

The first step in a two-part qualifying process for the Games.

[man] We're in San Francisco, bro. People get wild in San Francisco.

[Rich Froning] It's like enemy territory.

I competed in enemy territory the entire time-- The Games, too.

Hey, watch "The Ninja Turtles" trailer.

"Ninja Turtles."

Oh, they released the trailer?

Just today, just now.

This looks way cooler than I thought it was going to be.

I know, right?

It's like "Transformers," almost.

There we go. Okay.

Here we go. I don't know.

It's kind of tough to have a favorite. They're all awesome.

When I was a kid, it was Michelangelo.

Did you see the new "Transformers" trailer?

Holy crap.

[reporter] Merry CrossFit Christmas-- five champions

tonight in San Francisco-- three on the men's side, two on the women's side.

I mean, we usually have to wait till July to see this type of thing.

[announcer] Tonight, the former champs

take on the defending three-time fittest man

on earth here in San Francisco.

[cheers]

Rich Froning looks to go out strong in what

could be the end of an era.

This is my last year as an individual, yep.

[applause]

[announcer] Three, two, one!

go!

14.5 underway from a jam-packed Kezar Pavilion!

[Rich Froning] Three, two, one, go means thrusters and burpees.

There's no real skill in it. It's just go.

Sam goes out like a bat out of hell.

Didn't even think about it. I was like, well, she's going to kill us on this workout,

not even worth it, just let her go.

[cheers]

[announcer] But now, Rich Froning has taken the lead from Sam Briggs,

but just barely.

[Rich Froning] So once I started getting a little closer,

I was like, all right. Now I'm going to try to beat Sam for America.

[announcer] It's Rich Froning, who else?

The champ-- another victory.

[cheers]

[announcer] Unbelievable!

She said, I let him win.

[reporter] And when you saw Rich Froning

creep on that lead, what was going through your head?

I let him.

[laughter]

[cheers]

At the time, I was kind of like, what? What is that?

What is that?

[music playing]

[narrator] For the third straight year,

Froning would finish first in the open.

While it wasn't his ultimate goal,

it was a competition and that meant he wanted to win.

[Hillary Froning] Oh, my goodness.

He is stupid competitive.

Everything-- Everything he does-- He's competitive.

Pictionary-- He doesn't like losing at Pictionary.

He'd get pretty mad if he lost at anything.

And like, that was like, Wiffle ball,

home run derby, anything, even just with, like, neighbor kids.

We just-- He was not a very good loser.

You would think that it's like an NFL football game

when it's just flag football.

But don't say it's just flag football because he gets all torn up.

You know, it's serious.

Like sore loser competitive--

Everything we did was competition, whether we were

riding bikes, whether we were swimming to our dock,

whether we're playing king of the dock, video games, you name it.

We always were competitive with it.

It's just in him.

You know, everybody's like, what's the secret?

I said, he hates second.

Second is last.

There's no way to describe it.

I mean, he's just driven.

He's been that way since, like I said, since he could pick up a baseball.

[Rich Froning] Part of the reason I've become so competitive

is being part of a big family with a lot of boys in the family.

There were a lot of-- A lot of alpha males,

a lot of testosterone at-- At family get-togethers.

[narrator] While Froning and his family lived in Tennessee,

they would often get together with his 30 first cousins

from Michigan.

25 were boys.

One became a best friend and brother.

Donnie, my cousin who is Darren's older brother-- Oldest brother-- My best friend.

Rich and Donnie are 12 days apart.

They were twins.

I mean, I have pictures that--

When they were like three months old, of them talking to each other.

I mean, they were just best friends.

We're all like brothers, you know. It's not really I'd call us cousins.

I'd call us brothers.

[Rich Froning] I didn't get to play a lot of sports

with those guys, but you could still compare stats.

And you know, the dads, I think, made it a little bit more

competitive than we even wanted it to be, so--

[Janice Froning] He was all boy.

He had bruises from the time he could move,

and just loved every sport, played with his cousins

every-- Everything you could think of-- Fishing, baseball, football.

Get him! Get him!

[Janice Froning] They were always out in the backyard playing.

Na, na, na, na.

[Janice Froning] Climbing whatever he could climb, fearless.

[motor revving]

Let me try.

[laughing]

He was always very active, very active kid.

Probably had a touch of ADHD, but, uh...

just had to channel that.

He was always in sports.

So he was always very structured.

Kept him busy doing things around the house-- Either that,

or doing sports.

Next it's... other way.

We never babied him-- Never.

With them doing so much with sports and all that, you know,

we were always with them that when

there was stuff to be done around the house, he had to help.

Nobody loves him more than his parents.

But nobody's probably pushed him as hard as his parents.

Even when his friends would come over,

he goes, my friends aren't going to want to come over anymore.

[laughing]

Because we always had them doing whatever, you know.

Mostly when we were up here, we had a lot of apples.

And I just hated running over them

because I liked the clean yard, and plus the wasps and bees collected.

And so we'd make him pick up the apples.

But he made fun out of it.

When his friends were up here, they got out baseball bats.

And uh, they would see who could get them over the power line.

But that was the thing.

They made fun out of what they did, you know.

It was a challenge who could do this better,

or who could hit the apple further, whatever.

So there was always competition even

in doing what he had to do.

The Froning's-- They're just wired like that.

They're workers.

I've heard stories-- The legend--

That she would sleep a couple hours a night,

and she would take them to school, go to a job,

pick them up, go back to a job.

I don't think she saw it as a chore.

It's just what she did.

And you know, Big Rich-- I don't think he sees work as a chore.

It's just-- It's how you do things, and you do it right,

and you do it right the first time so you don't have to go back and do it again.

[woman] And now, entering the Froning Arena--

Urban Cowboy!

Looks like he's going to be hard to beat.

And now, his opponent, Redneck Rambo.

[bell ringing]

Let's get ready to rumble!

Oh!

-[interposing voices] -Oh, look at those!

And now, a word from our sponsors.

Use Stetson cologne.

It attracts all the ladies.

[music playing]

[cheers]

[whistle blowing]

[cheers]

[Janice Froning] There's my baby!

[whistle]

[woman] There you go.

[cheers]

[narrator] It wasn't always fun and games for Froning.

He had to earn the right to play by constantly

doing chores around the house.

The work ethic he learned from his parents

would not just stay in the home.

The first time I saw him from the very first workout,

we were doing a couple little things,

and I told my assistant coach, I said,

that's our starting second basemen.

Who is that kid?

Everything we do, we're going to build around that kid right there.

Because that kid is a go-go kid.

He's high energy, high level, hard-nosed,

dirtbag kind of kid.

That's the kind of kid you can build around.

Rich was the guy that was the first to get there,

the last to leave, wanted to take the most ground ball.

[Janice Froning] But he was the filthiest one out there

because, like I said, a ball didn't go past him.

White uniform and it was filthy from head to toe--

Whether sliding into the base or catching a ball.

They called him the "Human Glove."

He would never let a ball go past him.

And his baseball coach even said one day.

He goes, that kid knows where the ball's going

before it comes off the bat.

[Coach Butch Chafin] In basketball, they call it court awareness.

He was always aware of situations.

He always knew where to throw the ball.

I personally, had to keep an eye on Rich

to make sure he didn't hurt himself.

Because he is all in.

[Janice Froning] They had a booklet,

and in it, it said, "Rich Froning dives on pavement.

Enough said."

[Coach Butch Chafin] We were in a parking lot

because the ground was wet, and we were hitting ground balls to him with rubber balls.

It was freezing cold.

Rich was in shorts and a t-shirt,

and he was driving on asphalt for ground balls.

[narrator] Following his win in the open,

Froning moved on to one of the 17 Regionals.

In 2014, Froning would not only have

to battle some of the toughest competition in the world,

but also, the flu.

Keys-- Holding them.

We are headed to the Central East Regional-- Cincinnati, Ohio.

[woman speaking]

[Rich Froning] Yeah. The events aren't great for me.

Nothing is, like, my wheelhouse, especially

with the competition, you know.

Central East is pretty tight, so--

Thursday night, started to get a little sore throat.

And Friday morning, woke up, felt like crap.

[Hillary Froning] He had a fever.

He got a cough.

He was up all night because he couldn't

sleep because he was coughing.

[music playing]

[Justin Bergh] The battle between Scott and Rich

was one of the most epic back-and-forths

that I've ever seen in sports.

[announcer] Here comes Panchik.

One run for Rich, one for Scott.

And Rich Froning is just behind Scott Panchik.

There was some talk-- Lots of talk going on.

I feel like Rich has kind of flat-lined.

[coughing]

I feel great.

[coughing] Never better.

[music playing]

[Rich Froning] Rich is washed-up.

He's old. He's flat-lined.

Scott's going to beat him at the Games.

[announcer] Second to Scott Panchik.

Trying to make up for what he lost last night at Nasty Girls.

And now the time-- who's it going to be--

Panchik, Froning, Froning, Panchik, and Froning won!

[announcer] Oh!

My God!

[announcer] He never beat you by more than one second.

There's definitely some home-cooking going on here

'cause you beat him in one race and he goes down as a tie.

[narrator] It became two brothers going head to head,

and one brother had won everything.

And then all the younger brother wanted to do was just beat him once.

I guess his level of increasing is kind of peaking.

It, uh, it was a little motivation in that.

[announcer] Rich Froning known for his work capacity.

Scott, his tempo is always bigger

with every single movement that they do.

and the transition time is able to get Rich right back ahead.

And Rich Froning will be the first man

off the rower and walking across the finish line.

[announcer] This guy is absolutely so, so relaxed.

-That hurt. -That was crappy.

[grunting]

[coughing]

[grunting]

I needed one win over Scott that was more than a second.

You did good.

That hurt you, didn't it?

[narrator] When Froning started CrossFit in 2009,

the qualifying process for the Games was evolving.

Athletes competed in local sectionals

to earn the right to move on to the bigger

regional competition, and then the Games.

In 2010, Froning decided to compete with low expectations.

[Rich Froning] Me and Darren started doing CrossFit--

Solely doing CrossFit actually in this exact spot

July 1, 2009.

And our times were decent with some of the guys in our age

bracket, or whatever, so--

[Janice Froning] Six months later,

he says he's going to go to compete,

and I had to work a double.

And I was so bummed.

He's like, no.

He goes, I'm not going to make it past the first day.

He goes, these guys are beasts.

Oh, man, when I got there, all the other athletes just--

I didn't think I had a chance, to be honest.

That year, if you were in the top 15,

you got to go to regionals.

If I'm not in the top at least 20,

sniffing the top 15 in the first day,

we'll go ahead and have an early spring break.

The first event was a quick little burner.

Finished it, laid out-- Don't think I've ever gone that

hard in a workout in my life.

I think it was about an hour or two later,

they said they had the times posted.

So we walk over to the whiteboard.

My name was at the top.

And I was like, it's got to be a typo or something.

There's something wrong there.

It was so cool because you know, all these people

are like, who is this kid?

[narrator] Froning won two of the four workouts

to finish first in the sectional.

The hype was building.

There were some known competitors there.

I think Spencer Hendel was competing in the field.

Russell Berger was competing.

And guys you expected to go to the Games, and guys who

had been to the Games before.

Well, there was another guy there that everyone

was raving about, and I had never

really heard much about him.

And it was this young kid named Rich Froning.

[music playing]

[Justin Bergh] He was actually just different than some of the other guys.

He was stronger.

He had great mobility.

He could actually perform the movement the way

it looked like it was supposed to be performed,

not like somebody who was just figuring it out on the fly.

[Dave Castro] I watched him compete.

I watched him do the final.

And he was yards, miles in front of anyone else.

And these were established competitors.

And he dominated the field.

And at the time, you know, you don't ever

really want to say about someone--

That person can win the Games.

Because there's so many variables that go into it,

and one event really doesn't show the complete picture of someone.

But that was the type of person that I

thought, man, that guy can do really good at the Games.

He's probably going to be really good.

[Justin Bergh] I remember him actually lapping

other people in the final heat that were really good athletes.

He made squat snatches actually look easy.

So I end up winning my region, completely surprised by that.

[Janice Froning] So when he won Regionals,

and Castro come up to him, you could just see Rich was just-- You know.

Because it's Castro.

And he's just shaking his hand, and talking,

and just-- You know, just shell-shocked that he'd come up to talk to him.

[Dave Castro] You just knew that we was going to be around.

He just had a certain air to him.

And he was comfortable in competition in a way

that not a lot of other guys were in 2010.

[narrator] One week from the CrossFit Games,

Rich was home in Cookeville, a place

where he can get away from the pressure of competition

and return to the joy of being a kid--

But only with bigger toys.

This is a big truck.

Yeah.

Are you compensating for anything?

-No. -Mmm.

I don't know. Rich-- What do you like?

What do I do for fun?

[Josh Bridges] He's just a good, old boy who likes

to shoot guns and lift weights.

[James Hobart] I think Rich is a normal dude in the sense

that he still likes to do all this stuff

of, like, just causing mayhem.

[gunshots]

Riding our bikes around... blowing stuff up.

-[explosion] -[Rich Froning] There it is.

Playing sports--

[whistles]

Dude stuff.

We wanted to face something new.

[gunshots]

[man] He's very simple guy, doesn't take a lot to make him happy.

[Rich Froning] If I was going to be in a movie,

it'd be a Micheal Bay movie or a Marvel movie.

[music playing]

I describe it as, like, he's like a 12-year-old boy

with a lot of money, you know.

[Pat Sherwood] He's really fun.

He's a fun guy to hang around with.

He jokes around with his crew or whatnot, works really hard,

but plays really hard, and does stuff off the field that,

like, if you were his agent, you would just have a heart attack

in the middle of the night because he would be

zipping around on some, like, little pit bike with no helmet on.

You're like, you're gonna kill-- What are you doing?

You're gonna break your arm or wrist, you know.

And then he's going to just play hockey, you know,

and get hit, check the ground, you're like, why aren't you wearing more pads?

You earn your living being a Cross athlete.

Why are you exposing yourself to these risks?

And it's just he's just being him.

[twitter alert]

To force him not to do that, I think,

would actually take something away from him.

I don't know what it is-- This competitive, rough house spirit

that if you had to turn it off, and just

lift weights, and just run-- It wouldn't be the same Rich Froning.

Anything that gets the adrenaline going, I enjoy.

But then also, just being around-- Being around family, hanging out.

Uh-oh. Heads!

[woman] Really?

He-- Heber did it.

Anniversary gift from my wife.

Told her I wanted a motorcycle, so she gets me a child's motorcycle.

[laughing]

So I can't hurt myself.

But now, she realizes you can go a little faster than she thought.

Two tickets if you want to go to Aspen.

You want a knuckle sandwich?

Fist, noggin, dude.

[mimicking monkey]

Sounds a monkey make?

Mmm-hmm.

What sound does a horsey make?

Neigh-- [blows raspberries]

What sound's a donkey make?

[growling]

Hee-haw.

-Whoa. -Whoa!

I got you.

Hee-haw!

[Rich Froning] After sectionals, before Regionals in 2010,

Hillary and I got engaged.

And we'd scheduled our wedding for June 18, 2011.

And then we found out that the CrossFit Games 4 were

going to be in the end of July.

And so everybody thought we were crazy-- Got married on June 18th.

[Rich Froning] And Hillary said there was no working out on the honeymoon.

[Hillary Froning] Rich told me that he couldn't go on a honeymoon because

he couldn't train for the Games.

[Rich Froning] I could work out once a day.

That's what she said-- I could work out once a day.

He packed our car with weights and put

our bags over them so that I wouldn't

know that they were in the car.

He has done that four times since we've been married.

Hillary doesn't know the terms.

It was dumb bells. I didn't have no barbell in a Ford Focus.

I had a Focus at the time.

[Hillary Froning] He hides weights in our car under our bags.

I get it. It's his job.

Yeah, this is our vacation. It's okay.

You can take a vacation, too.

But he isn't like that.

If he doesn't work out, it's not good for anybody.

He's a diva.

James, you wanna overhead squat?

Yeah.

[narrator] Froning has transformed

the CrossFit Games landscape by revolutionizing

how to train for them.

People have trouble beating him because they have not

discovered how to outwork him.

When it comes to training, I know Rich takes no days off.

First year, like, we were doing this, we were only doing, like,

one workout a day, and just following,

you know, like a main side or something like that,

and then slowly starting making it up.

Then started doing two a day, three a days.

Now I can't even tell you what his-- His number's at.

[Pat Sherwood] When that guy writes workouts,

they're beautiful, elegant programming of loading, of rep schemes,

of the movements that are very artful, quite frankly,

in how they look in the symmetry,

and then produce devastating fitness as well.

[Rich Froning] I love programming.

Programming's probably one of my favorite parts of CrossFit,

just to make up workouts, how movements feed off

of each other, and how to get the most power out of a workout.

It's also a curse because I'll look at workouts,

and I'll be like, that's dumb. I'm not doing that.

There should probably be some workouts with random numbers

and stuff like that that you should probably do just because.

It's really fun to, you know-- Ooh, that workout looks cool.

I just want to try it. That part is fun.

Maybe in the back of our head, the ultimate goal is to, like,

find the magic pill program.

And we know that it doesn't exist.

But I think when I'm putting something together,

I'm always looking for what is the next terrible, yet effective, thing?

He's also remarkably smart.

I-- I know some stuff.

I mean, my track record has shown I train pretty decent.

I know enough about metabolic pathways,

and different intervals, and how to train

different energy systems, and I know what I'm doing.

I'm not completely stupid.

You got to have people thinking you're a little crazy--

Come on.

[Coach Butch Chafin] But I know this.

I know he broke his ankle and didn't miss a day,

and squatted the next day with a broken ankle.

The Rich Froning method for Rich Froning

works incredibly well.

Does the Rich Froning book that we wrote,

the method that he has work incredibly

well for all the other guys?

No, and especially the older guys.

[Rich Froning] There's been things that I've tried

that have worked masterfully.

And then there's some other things

that have been a complete failure.

But it's cool to-- To try to see what you can do.

And, you know, the body's an incredible machine.

And it was designed and created to do what we do.

And what's cooler than getting to test that everyday?

There'll be a lot of people say, well, he's not doing CrossFit.

He's won the CrossFit Games not doing CrossFit.

I've seen that comment a lot.

I do high intensity.

I do functional movements.

And I constantly vary it.

That's CrossFit.

So the last three years, me and Hillary have been trying to have kids.

Hillary, ever since I met her,

you know most people want to be a doctor, or a lawyer, or something.

Hillary's always wanted to be a mom.

Before we got married, the Lord had already put on our hearts

that we were going to adopt.

We wanted three kids of our own, and adopt one.

We been trying to get pregnant for three years.

Um, we did the shots.

We did the medicine.

We've done the surgery.

Um, it's heartbreaking.

The worst part of the whole deal is, you know,

I have the disappointment of-- Of-- You know, it not working every month.

But then to see the disappointment on her face

and to have both of those-- It was tough.

It was real tough.

It's almost embarrassing to say, um--

But for those three years, I was angry.

[crying]

I just felt like, you know, everybody around me

was-- Was pregnant, and it was so easy.

And it was so hard to be--

Because you're so happy for them, but you're so-- You want that joy, too.

And--

[narrator] Their prayers would be answered.

The Fronings added baby Lakelyn into their family.

Rich was in the middle of preparing for the Games.

He would have little time to prepare for being a father.

What are you doing, Squirt?

Here-- Eat this, not your hand.

I haven't got to spend as much time

as I'd like to, just because of the timing right now.

But at night, I try to give Hillary

a little-- A little break and just hang out with--

Hang out with the Squirt.

Are you bleeding?

-[Rich Froning] Yeah. -From what?

-Picked a scab. -[woman] What's this?

We need more girls around here.

I've always, um, had it in my heart to adopt,

and I always felt like it was God's plan for us to adopt.

And when I met Rich and I told him that, he felt the same way.

And so I think it was always God's plan for us to adopt.

We started praying for a birth mom instead of with the agency.

And this all happened within three weeks-- Less than a month.

Which only God can work that fast.

Because somebody who knew somebody knew a birth mom.

This birth mom had been working with another family

for four or five months.

And they had just backed out.

You know, Hillary found this girl, found out she was pregnant,

wanted to give the baby up for adoption,

reached out to the girl.

So I met her the next day.

We had lunch.

And it was kind of like, all right. We're going to do this.

When are you due?

It was, like, two weeks.

And so you're like, we don't have a home study.

We don't have background-- We don't have anything,

like, what are we going to do?

Hillary's like, we're going to get it done.

Oh yeah, and the CrossFit Games is four weeks away.

Yeah, we literally got everything done in two weeks,

had a baby.

Me and Hillary were there for the birth.

Hillary slept in the hospital in the room next door.

I cut the cord.

I mean, it was a crazy, whirlwind experience.

And we had a baby two weeks before the CrossFit Games.

[Hillary Froning] And then from day four,

there's 10 days for her to revoke--

Her or the dad to revoke.

And if they do revoke, there's nothing

that we can do about it.

We have to give her back, which is...terrifying.

But that's not going to happen.

So she has until Monday night at midnight to change her mind.

So we're kind of in that waiting period.

But-- But Lakelyn is-- Is with us, and, uh, it's been awesome.

So originally, Lakelyn was, uh--

The mom went to have an abortion.

And, uh, so she went to the crisis pregnancy center.

And, uh, somebody changed her mind.

And so, we now have a-- A beautiful baby.

[crying]

And, uh--

[clears throat]

[exhales]

So anybody who's-- That's an option or a thought...

think twice about it.

Because, uh, you know, you get to change somebody's life.

And uh, you know, the-- Like Hillary said, the mom,

you know, one of the cool things she told Hillary-- She said,

you know, there's some things I'm not proud of in my life.

But, uh, this is my one chance to do something right.

And she did do something right, and, you know,

give this baby a chance.

And, uh, so if she does see this, thank you.

And for anybody else thinking about it,

or anybody who's given up a baby for adoption, and--

And not done the other-- Other option, uh, thank you.

You weren't supposed to cry.

I didn't.

That-- I didn't-- didn't mean to do that.

Sorry.

[crying]

Oh, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

Don't cry.

Don't give me that sad face. Here.

Lord, thank you for this day.

Thank you for this beautiful child that we have,

and this gift.

We just pray that You would help us to bring her up

in Your image, and to serve You, and just pray that we would do

all those things that Lakelyn needs, and be here for her,

and be as good of parents as we had,

and, uh, just bless this child, and pray

that we would continue to serve You and glorify

You in all that we do.

And I just pray that You would watch over us

in these upcoming weeks, and make

the travel as easy as possible.

Pray that You'd give us strength and courage

for what's coming up next.

And just pray that You'd keep us all safe in all that we do.

And in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.

Amen.

[music playing]

[Pat Sherwood] I got to hang out with him out there in Tennessee

for like three or four days, hang out with him, the family,

watch his daily routine, watch him train.

And I was so blown away and just awestruck...

by what he did every day of his normal life.

[music playing]

I don't know.

I don't want to add anything to this until we finish more stuff on here.

We see some progress here.

Okay.

Uh-- This--

We've done this one right now.

Nope.

Well, the board just got loaded.

Sure did.

But there's still a lot of crap up here.

Three rounds, 10 dumbbell snatch,

10 D-ball, 15 chest to bar--

Just watch me have a total meltdown.

I just don't really want to overhead squat right now.

That's about it.

Let's do the wall ball deadlifts.

[music playing]

[Pat Sherwood] Nothing else that I had seen you could compare it to--

Regards to workouts, loading, volume, intensity,

how much he wasn't beat up, how much he could handle and still

go in the next day, and just repeat it ad nauseum,

and then, like, barely even eating food or drinking water.

And you're like, how is your body even capable of sustaining

this level of work?

I'm watching you with my own eyes. You don't feed yourself!

[music playing]

Where is the energy coming from for your muscles to contract

and pump blood everywhere?

I don't even-- That doesn't even make any sense to me.

And he does it all day long.

That's not normal.

It's not normal.

And when you take that work ethic,

you know, that strength, that cardio,

all the components of fitness-- And that just freak of nature

ability, as well, to just perform-- I was just like,

no one's going to touch this guy.

[narrator] Froning, his family, and baby

Lakelyn arrive in Carson the Monday

before the CrossFit Games.

And for once, the three-time champion's focus

was not on competition.

At 10:00 PM that night, he and Hillary would

officially become parents.

Three minutes.

[woman] Would you fill out this birthday card?

We have a child.

[Hillary Froning] It's funny because the last two years,

I wanted to be pregnant at the Games so bad

so that I could just tell him as soon as the Games

were over, hey, I'm pregnant.

I wanted to tell him so bad.

[indistinct]

You're lucky it's your birthday.

[Hillary Froning] It was perfect.

[crying]

Because this year, I didn't say, hey, I'm pregnant.

It was, hey, you know, here's our daughter

which God put everything-- It was perfect timing for us.

It all happened within five weeks.

And it all happened for it to be final right before the Games,

and final for his birthday.

She doesn't care.

It was awesome.

I'm never putting her down.

You can put her down now.

-No. -Nobody's going to take her.

I can't talk.

You're going to have to.

It's the best.

She's awesome.

Life is so great.

It's crazy how something so small

can just make your life so much better.

I love being a mom.

She's part of the family whether she likes it or not.

There's people who are going to participate

and there's people who are going to win.

[Sean Woodland] The last time Rich Froning did not finish first

in an individual competition was the 2011 Open.

But there is a good stable of individuals behind him

who are trying to chase him down.

Who are the five who have the best

shot of accomplishing that?

I've get a list of pipehitters here for you, Sean--

Jason Khalipa, Ben Smith,

Dan Bailey, Tommy Hackenbruck--

Matt Fraser.

Matt Fraser.

The big one is Fraser.

Fraser's special.

[man] He won the Northeast Regional this year.

He's got elite level strength.

His times beat Rich Froning's times on three of the seven workouts at Regionals.

And then, Scott Panchik--

Scott had an incredible fire.

That's the type of heart that's going to take down Rich.

If you don't have that, you're not taking down Rich.

You're just going to participate in the CrossFit Games.

You're going to have fun at the CrossFit Games.

[narrator] So here's Rich's MO-- First day of the CrossFit Games. Not his bag.

He's usually struggled on longer events--

Beach events, long hill runs, and things like that.

[announcer] It's a day at the beach,

but it certainly will not be easy for the 43 men

vying for the title of the "Fittest on Earth."

Hello, everybody, and welcome to the opening event of the 2014

Reebok CrossFit Games.

The ocean swim-- That was the first time that-- That I was like, oh, wow.

Rich worked on something which has been a historical weakness.

Like, I'm not worried about him cleaning, jerking,

or snatching, or walking on his hands, or, you know,

blah, blah, blah.

But, like, you think about swimming.

You think about running.

And those are the things you're like, ehh,

he's going to get hurt here.

[Rich Froning] So this year, announced the ocean swim--

[sighs]

So 2013, I almost died in the pool.

There's nowhere to hide in a pool.

Uh, you can't just hide among people

like you can in the ocean.

So it was exposed that I wasn't a very good swimmer.

I was a very poor swimmer.

[reporter] You know, right there-- Not a typical place

we see Rich Froning-- The last one out of the water.

However-- See, look at his kick.

That is not an efficient kick.

When he's kicking that hard like that,

he's never been in this position.

He's never had a score like this.

So how is he going to be able to handle it?

That's what's going to be interesting.

So this year, the swimming was the easy part of that workout.

[reporter] Event number one underway

as the athletes make their way into the water

for that initial 250 yard swim.

And you know, Bill, better than anybody,

you can train in a pool.

You can learn to swim there.

But swimming in a pool and swimming in open water

are two completely different things.

[announcer] They are absolutely different.

The-- With the pool swimming, you got the line

on the bottom of the pool.

You have your goggles.

Everything is a controlled setting.

The ocean or open water is completely opposite of that.

[reporter] So Rich Froning is a guy who, last year, at the pool

suffered his worst finish ever.

He finished 30th, but still managed

to win the CrossFit Games.

If Froning finishes anywhere inside the top 15,

that is a huge win for him.

[reporter] That'll be a gigantic place--

[Rich Froning] Well, Dave-- When I came out of the water after the 500,

you know, he's directing traffic, making sure people

are running out and other people are running in.

You're not running into each other, and all that.

And, uh, he looks at me, and he goes,

"wow, you have been practicing your swimming."

[Dave Castro] I was surprised, but not because

I knew he was swimming a lot.

Is that him out there?

Come on, Rich!

There he goes!

There he goes!

[reporter] Rich Froning is out of the water.

And this is huge!

[cheers]

I didn't die!

[reporter] Eighth place finish for Rich Froning.

He could be your leader after day one.

And he's going to be a tough man to catch

going into the weekend.

[Pat Sherwood] Where he placed on that event was the first time

I was like, wow, it's-- if the champ is doing that good

on something which historically, has been a kind of a survival,

kind of a middle of the pack event, people better be scared,

you know?

Whole hamburger-- Cheeseburger-- Bacon.

Are you going to put it on Instagram?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Tag me in it.

How you doing, brother?

[laughing]

[music playing]

Going into the overhead squat, I had zero planned whatsoever-- Nothing.

Really. No, I didn't.

[narrator] Having conquered the waves,

Froning moved to the weights.

While water had always been a weakness, barbells were not.

And that meant it was time for Rich Froning

to do what he always does.

[Dave Castro] I always talk to Jason and Rich about showtime.

And that's what a bit of it is.

It's a bit of a show.

[reporter] Rich Froning, who with a solid performance here,

if he can get close to Matt Fraser,

could find himself on top of the leaderboard

heading into Friday.

[reporter] Here's the champ, Rich Froning, at 365 for the champ!

[reporter] So he's going to be pushing Matt,

and that's exactly what the fields

didn't want-- A good swim and a good lift by Rich.

[Dave Castro] Well, so, he admittedly--

The-- The small jump-- The 377-- The match to Fraser--

He just said, I made a mistake.

He should have put on 378 or 379.

[reporter] Big weight for Rich Froning,

looking to tie Matt Fraser in his second lift.

[reporter] Oh.

[reporter] The Champ is on the warpath.

377 and now tied for first place overall in event number two.

So I hit 377.

Me and Matt Fraser are tied.

But in hindsight, I could've taken away five points from him.

Probably should have went the conservative route-- Hit 380, 385, maybe.

Dave walks up. He's like, what's your weight?

-I said, 400. -He goes, all right.

Do it.

[reporter] 400 pounds on the bar for Froning,

and that's not gonna happen either.

But Froning will tie for first.

And he could be very well on top of the leaderboard after day number one.

But I couldn't get it.

[Dave Castro] And so, he did that for the show.

And that's really cool, and I really respect him for that.

It would've been amazing if he was successful at that.

But, you know--

@CrossFitGames, @RichFroning, @MatthewFraser, @NoahOhlsen.

Rich, you [bleep] suck.

No way you win this year.

Thanks.

Thanks, bro.

Appreciate that-- @DamoMay17.

Such a nice guy.

@DamonMay- we'll pray for you.

So pumped-- So-- Dude, I was shaking.

-That I went for 400? -Yeah.

[laughing]

Can we get a milkshake?

Yeah, I'm trying to think, like, what's down this strip.

You want a McDonald's milkshake, or do you want, like , a Johnny Rocket?

♪ You lost that loving feeling ♪

Whoa.

All right, guys.

-Good night. -Good night.

-Later. -What a day.

Hey, guys. What's up?

Hey, James is here.

Hey, James.

Ooh, Red Bull.

Gives you wings!

I know. I need a shower.

I need to wash my feet.

They're disgusting.

It was the 400 with the spinal brace.

400 pounds.

It was close.

-[interposing voices] -It wasn't.

-It was close! -It wasn't that close.

You're thinking that it wasn't close?

I mean, I think 400 pounds?

Yeah, look, hold on-- So I clean-- When I clean

and jerked 370, uh, as soon as I got it done, she goes,

is it really necessary to lift that much weight?

[laughing]

What happened?

I think it's a legitimate question.

Hillary--

[laughing]

[sighs]

My and Hillary's relationship is awesome.

Our relationship's crazy.

It's fun.

It's not normal.

But I love it.

[Rich Froning] If you've seen an interview with her, you know her.

[laughing]

She's, uh, she's not afraid to tell you how she feels.

[crying]

Hey, buddy.

I just want a towel.

That's all that was down there.

Our marriage is successful, I think,

because we are the definition of opposites attract.

But it works for us.

I feel like, um, we both support each other without being

in each other's way.

Um, she's--

-Pooping. -She is.

-Did you hear it? -Nope.

-See you later. I don't know. -Is she?

There's no real filter.

From the brain to the mouth is-- Is what you get.

You know how you stand. You know where you stand.

I think he likes it though.

I think he likes when I'm like, you're not--

Sometimes you need the truth.

-[laughter] -Yeah.

See, that's Hillary.

She, uh, she's perfect and she knows it.

And I give it to him all the time.

They balance each other out.

She calls his bullshit, and he calls hers.

[laughing]

And I think that's what I love about it.

I call it playful banter.

She-- I think she takes it a little bit more serious than I do.

I'm more joking.

She's really going for the kill shot.

But you gave her a towel.

He gave her a washcloth-- A hand towel.

I didn't give her a washcloth. I gave her a hand towel.

I actually think he gave her the rug.

-The rug? -I did not give the rug.

[laughing]

[Janice Froning] I love the way he looks at her--

I mean, his smile, the love he has for her.

She is everything that I am not.

She is, uh-- She's awesome.

She, uh--

[crying]

I wouldn't be where I am today without her, that's for sure.

[narrator] Heading into day two, Froning was threatening to run away with the competition.

Then he actually had to run.

I just don't want to get to that run.

You don't want to get to it?

Nope.

Then Triple 3's, which I-- I knew that event was going to be bad for me.

I needed to get that event over.

I don't know-- Didn't have a good feeling about that event.

[music playing]

[reporter] It's day two, but it's all about the number three.

Hello, everybody, and welcome to the individual set

for the Triple 3.

[Janice Froning] It was stressful a little bit.

But I didn't know he wasn't feeling good.

[reporter] Rich Froning, day one, first place--

Not where you want him to be if you're a competitor trying to--

Trying to actually win this competition.

[Pat Sherwood] So it starts off with a row.

If you're the champion, you're going to look around

and modulate your row off somebody, who are you probably

going to look at-- One of the best

rowers out there-- Jason Khalipa.

Well, that's a terrible person to pace off of on a row.

Because usually what Rich can do is Rich can go 80%.

And everyone else is at 100, and he still has his push.

Well, it was probably the polar opposite of the rower.

Khalipa's probably just, I don't know, thinking about lunch

in his head, or something, you know,

rowing some ridiculous pace at like 75% of his capacity.

And Froning's heart's almost exploding

trying to keep up with them.

[reporter] It's Jason Khalipa-- No surprise here--

Onto his double-unders first.

Rich Froning was off the rower and is on to his set of 300 double unders.

[Pat Sherwood] Gets off the rower doing a strategy that

traditionally has worked well for him,

starts to do the double unders.

He'll be able to get a small break.

Khalipa does 300 double unders unbroken!

[Janice Froning] The way it was--

I mean, I was standing on a rail trying to even see.

And I seen his shoulders when he was doing the double unders.

And it wasn't his normal-- 'Cause you know, he hardly ever moves.

And it was more of a-- And I looked at Hillary and go, something's wrong.

And she said, what do you mean?

And I said, his shoulders aren't right.

[Pat Sherwood] Then you take off on a run,

which is the one thing that he self-admitted hates to do and doesn't work on.

[woman] He would look around and the look on his face

just doesn't look right.

He's not-- very uncharacteristic for Rich.

[Pat Sherwood] It was hard to watch.

Because, you know, that's not Rich.

But you could tell something was wrong physically.

[reporter] We are halfway through the three-mile run.

And now Rich Froning's starting to walk, taking a break there.

That's something you don't really see. But the halfway point--

[Pat Sherwood] Him walking on the Triple 3--

It's like a glimmer of hope to the rest of us mere mortals that, you know,

that even superhumans have these days.

And I think what Rich does so well-- This is just a theory--

Bit him in the ass, which is paying attention

to what everyone else is doing.

[reporter] But Froning is struggling on this three-mile run.

[reporter] Yeah.

This is really odd.

[reporter] This is something we have never, ever seen.

You never see Rich Froning ever have a weakness.

[reporter] And Froning will finish in 37th place.

[cheers]

[Pat Sherwood] I'm sure it's going to stick with him for quite a while.

But it's his own fault. You know, to think that you can

have what would be considered a glaring weakness,

and then just, oh, I'll pull through it somehow.

He shouldn't have had to work as hard

as he did because he should have been kind of taking care of that for a while.

[cheers]

I'd walk a little bit.

I'd run.

I just fell apart.

Thought I'd been running enough-- Guess not.

I was going to pee my pants.

I was like, I might just do it.

I about passed out a few times, though.

Hey.

Man.

Dang it.

[Justin Bergh] Man, to see Rich Froning

walking with althletes-- Men and women-- Passing by.

It was, uh, it was something I will never forget.

Didn't want to stop, had to stop,

so damage control, at that point.

How far did I fall?

37th.

Not as bad as I thought, but it's not good.

There's a new worst.

I'm just looking to see where everybody's at--

All the regulars are at, where the new guys are at.

Huh?

Stop looking at that.

Just looking at it, bro.

It's tough going into a workout after you've just

done bad at a workout, especially a workout

that you don't know.

So I think what was the sled push.

And I knew those were going to be tough.

[Justin Bergh] There's a couple of events that stick out

in my mind in the history of the Games that have

really just floored athletes.

And the sprint sled was one of them.

On that workout, though, it caught him in a bad way.

[reporter] Rich Froning is still on the field,

-hands on his knees-- -[reporter] Wow.

[reporter] One of three athletes still on the field.

Now Rich Froning is going to cross the finish line.

So what looked like it was going to be a Rich Froning runaway

after he finished eighth at the beach

and then tied for first at the overhead squat

has turned into a familiar story.

Froning will have to work his way up

the leaderboard on the weekend.

[Rich Froning] So I did bad at that event, too.

It wasn't a good event.

So it was just kind of like, two-- Two blows in one.

Honestly, it looked like you had

to sacrifice everything you knew about form

to get it moving right.

I mean, the people that-- The people that moved it good-- It looked awful.

I mean, seriously.

There were patches of grass that would move.

There were patches of grass that wouldn't move.

It was like--

How heavy was it?

It wasn't heavy.

It was just-- The grass.

I'm telling-- Like, if you hit a good spot of grass--

It would stop moving quickly.

-Would it? -Yeah.

If you had a good piece of grass, it would move fast.

And then all of a sudden, it just felt like you were pushing in the mud, so--

[man] I'm excited. This next one is going to be cool.

The way the rest of the weekend's going, who knows?

[Hillary Froning] I said he better pull his crap together.

[laughing] He's stressing me out.

Did you get that on camera?

[laughing]

I'm gonna be wife of the year, huh?

[laughing]

Yeah.

I'm very, very, very nervous for Rich.

It's just nerve-wracking, in general.

[man] What's nerve-wracking about it?

Um, just working all year for one weekend, you know.

And he doesn't feel very well.

And that's what's stressful is, you know,

he's worked all year for one weekend.

And you don't have time-- He can't fell bad, you know.

And there's not much you can really do about it.

I think-- I think his stomach's just nerves, to be honest, though.

So hopefully-- Hopefully after this one, and the first day's done, he'll feel better.

Here.

You want to eat this now?

[interposing voices]

I'm good.

I don't deserve to eat.

You've done shit nasty.

I know.

I don't know if it's-- You'd call it angry, or just a little frustrated, you know.

I mean, like I was telling him, he gets in this situation all the time.

So, you know, I think, like, I think for him,

he just does this whole role-play thing

where he goes through this.

And then he gets out there in the crowd,

and it's just totally different.

He can-- He can just turn it off like that.

[music playing]

[Justin Bergh] If you're not in the final heat,

and you're Rich Froning, that's not a good sign.

And being in the second-to-last heat on Friday,

I think it was a wake-up call for him.

[Rich Froning] Going into the final event on Friday

was the first time since the first event in 2010

that I wasn't in the final heat.

I was a little angry.

[narrator] The opening event of 2010

was also the first time Froning would

set foot on the competition floor at the CrossFit Games.

It would be the first step in a journey

that would define his legacy.

[announcer] Rich Froning!

[reporter] And I like his guy, too.

[announcer] Three, two, one, go!

Rich Froning, done with round one in 55 seconds.

[reporter] Wow!

Rich Froning's back on the rings.

[narrator] Athletes face a pair of technical movements

in the opening event-- Muscle-ups and squat snatches.

[man] As he just looked comfortable at the upper ends

of his output, where everybody else--

When they get towards that upper end,

the wheels start falling off.

[narrator] But Froning would take third place

and become a fixture in the final heat.

By the end of the weekend, he would

find himself on top of the leader board

heading into the final events.

He and his fellow athletes were challenged

with the unknown and unknowable as they

were sequestered in the bowels of the Home Depot Center.

[Rich Froning] No phones, no TV.

You're sitting in a room with, like-- I mean,

there was, like, 30 people.

It was the-- The most miserable experience of my life.

[Rory McKernan] One group at a time,

they're brought out to a steaming,

piping-hot competition floor.

Black matting makes it even worse.

[Justin Bergh] And I remember standing

next to a guy that worked for the Home Depot Center.

And he had this device that he could shoot at the floor,

and it would tell you the temperature.

And I don't remember exactly what it was.

He said it was 130.4 degrees on the blacktop.

[Rory McKernan] They're looking at a competition floor.

They have no idea if there's three workouts,

five workouts, one workout.

Do you give it all here? Do you wait?

Do you hold some back?

They have zero information.

All they know is that there's a judge next to them.

Dave Castro's talking to them.

And the fans are screaming.

On the command of three, two, one, go, you'll do 30 push-ups.

All the way down--

I don't even remember what he said, to be honest.

You're just kind of looking around,

and everybody drops down and does push-ups.

[reporter] I guess they thought Dave was kidding there.

Rich Froning assumes the mentality that I'm going hard. I'm going to win this one.

He doesn't know anybody else's time from other heats.

He doesn't know if anybody's finished the thing.

[interposing voices]

[reporter] Wow! Finished.

He did finish.

He's got to get over the rope.

He's got to get over the rope.

He's got 15 seconds in which to do that.

[announcer] 49!

[reporter] He's got 10 seconds.

[man] And the dude just sells out, and he finished.

He gets back over the wall to finish the workout.

He was the only person who did it.

So then you're in a complete, just, stupor.

But he suffered a lot on the second workout.

[man] He had probably gone out too hard, too fast

on that first of three, not knowing what was in store.

[reporter] Rich Froning. It looks like a lot of gas taken out.

[narrator] In the final event, athletes

faced burpees over a wall and 20-foot rope climbs.

Froning had scrapped his way to a four-point lead

over Graham Holmberg.

[Rich Froning] Didn't think anything of it,

went to climb that rope, and my arms are shot.

[reporter] Look at Rich.

Rich Froning-- Doing what he can.

[Rich Froning] Just done.

Very slowly, the realization set in

that this dude doesn't know how to get himself up a rope.

[Justin Bergh] And I remember, this is, like, a crisis.

We're huddling up, trying to decide

what are we going to do if this guy

ends up on the top of the points,

but he didn't have a rope climb?

[Dave Castro] Because it's like, oh my God,

this guy did great through the past two days of competitions,

and now he can't climb a rope.

And I said, hey, look.

If this kid doesn't do one rope climb,

we're not even going to let him podium.

Finally, just was like, all right.

I'm getting up this rope.

Get up the rope, hit it, and take about one down, and just let go.

[inaudible] Oh!

[crowd shouting]

Because here's the reason why-- How can you make it that far

and be the second, or third, or first fittest person alive,

but not be able to climb a rope?

Amazingly, he was able to muscle his way up,

and he did get one or two climbs.

So that negated that fact, and he was able to podium.

[reporter] Boy.

In a shirt soaked in sweat, he signals that he's just ready just ready to shoot himself.

[narrator] The rope would cost Rich Froning the championship.

And his run as the most dominant athlete in CrossFit

was almost over before it began.

He had a totally new outlook on CrossFit after 2010.

And there was a few months after where he didn't want to do it anymore.

He was quiet for a couple days.

It was a crappy feeling to feel like, you know, I'd-- I'd let people down, let myself down.

It was hard to just watch him beat himself up over one thing.

And I felt like, you should be proud to be in second.

You know, that was still awesome.

He was-- he couldn't be happy because he fell off the rope.

Everything happens for a reason.

I think that was a-- That was a wake-up call from somebody else.

CrossFit had become my identity.

That's who I was, and that's what I put my identity in was CrossFit.

He didn't like the CrossFit Games.

He didn't want to compete anymore.

I wanted the glory.

You know, I want to make my city proud, my-- My family proud, my, you know, friends proud.

But I wanted to make them proud of me.

And so that was, uh, it was selfish.

Faith had always been in my life, but wasn't the center of my life.

I didn't have bad stuff at the center of my life,

like, people were at the center of my life.

CrossFit was at the center of my life, and not my faith.

And so I got baptized again.

It was a big shift from religion,

where it was something I had to do,

like I felt like I had to go to church, I had to read my Bible,

I had to pray to I want to.

It just clicked finally.

And it was a pretty cool, like, an "aha" moment, like this needs to be the center of my life.

And my life has changed since that point.

And so in 2011, it was to give Him the glory,

give God the glory, give Jesus the glory.

You know, He's given me these gifts,

and my gift back is to tell everybody I can

about why I do what I do, and what He's done for me.

[narrator] Refocused and rededicated,

Froning returned to the Games in 2011.

The rope was waiting for him.

Did Castro create that intentionally?

I was ready for the rope climb workout in 2011. I've done a lot of rope climbs.

[reporter] Rich Froning, who's back from the rope first,

for his set of four rope climbs.

[reporter] No only did Rich learn how to climb a rope,

but he is moving very efficiently.

[reporter] The crowd is now on their feet

as Rich Froning approaches his final rope climb.

Rich came out of the gate and in that event,

set fire and torched the field, and let

everybody know, like, you're not going to see me do that again.

[reporter] Rich choosing to walk with two athletes just seconds behind him.

[reporter] Rich seals the deal-- Four minutes, 57 seconds,

with just seconds behind.

[narrator] What people would see is the start

of the most dominant string of performances

ever in the sport of fitness.

[music playing]

[reporter] But it's Rich Froning who'll be the first on now.

[reporter] Rich Froning now on pace to--

[reporter] One more pull to seal the deal.

And Rich Froning is the champion of the 2011

Reebok CrossFit Games.

[Justin Bergh] 2011, he wins the CrossFit Games.

2012 on, he wins it outright.

[music playing]

My name's Rich Froning, and I'm here to defend my title.

[reporter] And Rich Froning, the competitor that he is--

[reporter] And you can start showing him his gold medal.

[reporter] I can't believe Froning hasn't put the barbell down yet.

[reporter] Rich Froning-- One more rep to go!

[reporter] Rich Froning is the Fittest Man on the Planet.

[reporter] Unbelievable!

[reporter] 14.5 underway!

[reporter] Crossfit Games champion.

[reporter] He's going to get back on the bar. Two seconds, one second.

Froning has won against the test of our kind.

[reporter] Here comes Rich Froning, who can win this event

if he keeps this pace.

The crowd on its feet as the champ chewing up ground.

The finish line is within reach.

[reporter] And he will make it.

Rich Froning is now 100 points richer.

[reporter] I'll tell you what-- That guy is unbelievable!

You can't throw anything at this kid that he can't do.

[reporter] Froning's gotta hurry!

[reporter] I mean, when you're this good,

when you're this good, you really aren't threatened by anything.

Wow.

[reporter] Start shining the gold medal for Rich Froning!

And he is going to crush the time to beat.

Rich Froning, unbroken and across the finish line!

[cheers]

[announcer] Ladies and gentlemen,

he's outstanding in CrossFit again.

This man has won three events.

I give you the 2013 Reebok CrossFit Games Champion,

Rich Froning!

[narrator] Froning's first appearance at the tennis

stadium was the start of his run as the man to beat at the Games.

As he made his way to the floor in 2014,

that run was in danger.

So Rich Froning attacked with reckless abandon.

[reporter] The 21-15-9 Complex is underway!

[Rich Froning] Luckily, James had went out before me,

and he said, go faster than you think you should.

It's short.

You'll be fine. Just go.

[cheers]

[reporter] The crowd coming to its feet

as the three-time defending champion Rich Froning moves to the barbell.

[reporter] Froning needs a big performance in this event.

[reporter] Classically, you don't see Rich jump onto the front,

but after the-- The devastating day that he's had today, he has to.

[Dave Castro] We usually don't see him go 100%.

And he doesn't have to, so he doesn't.

So we're very rarely seeing him push to the complete edge.

But when he does, that's a thing of beauty.

[reporter] This is the first time.

I've never seen Rich look around to see where the other athletes are.

He's going into this, I mean, with true reckless abandon

that we haven't seen him do before.

He's not stopping or breaking to rest.

He is attacking this workout.

[reporter] Froning on the bar muscle-ups.

One more to go-- And the champ is back!

Rich Froning, demolishing the time to beat-- 416.63.

[Dave Castro] In that heat, he didn't

have the same type of competition he would in the final.

So he has to go harder than whereas earlier,

as I was saying, he doesn't always go 100%

because he doesn't have to.

That-- he really had to because he knew in the next heat,

he'd have to just set the score to beat.

You can't be in that second-to-last heat no more!

I know, bro.

I feel like sand-bagging some stuff.

I'm going to start weighing some events. There we go!

There we go!

That's the champ I know and love!

Either crash or go for it.

-I got your stuff. -I got you this.

Thanks, man.

Where's the check?

Where's the baby?

That's what I'm going to do.

Get ready for push-ups tomorrow.

Just saying, dude, just saying, if you want to keep up--

Just sit on his back while he's doing them.

[laughing]

After a day of training, what are we eating?

Cheese quesadilla and a half a pound of pork.

Um, she slept the whole time when there.

So she probably needs to be fed and a diaper.

Okay, I love you. I'll be back.

When are you coming back?

I just have to take her laundry to the house.

And then I'll be back.

So you're trusting Rich with your child.

No, you guys are in here.

Um, but she'll be fine.

-You can-- It's fine. -I'm a father.

I'm good. You're a father.

She's on camera, so she's like, no, you'll be-- It's okay.

It's okay.

[interposing voices]

[crying]

Hey, Lakelyn, Lakelyn.

And here we go.

Is this the first time you've been alone with Lakelyn?

Yeah.

[laughing]

Why is that so funny?

I-- I don't know.

I just can't stop laughing.

No-- Yeah.

Little-- I know. I know.

[crying]

Yeah.

Oh, come on.

[crying]

You probably pooped, didn't you?

Do I change her before the bottle or after the bottle?

Before.

Shoot. [crying]

Flip it over. This is bad.

Okay.

Did you say, flip it over?

I mean, oh, wow.

[laughing]

Ugh.

Look. Open that one up.

-Okay. -It's okay.

Get a wipe ready.

Okay.

And when you leave-- And then when you open that one up

and use the-- Okay, you're good.

You got it.

-Girl-- -All right.

Now-- Yeah.

Yeah.

You're good to go.

Come on, bro.

Come at me, bro.

I think it's squeezing her brain, actually.

That's why she's crying.

I don't like this bow!

[humming]

-Oh, no. -Oh, no It fell off!

-[laughing] -Whoops.

Oh, Lakelyn, you want to watch SportsCenter?

What? You want to watch SportsCenter?

OK.

Last time.

Good night. Love you all.

-[yawning] See ya. -See ya all tomorrow.

Hasta manana.

See ya.

Get that beauty sleep.

You need it.

[interposing voices]

Especially for you, Darren.

-Especially. -'Cause you're pretty.

Muscle-up biathlon-- Muscle-up biathlon

is something I looked forward to other than the run, I mean, of course.

But muscle-ups are something I like, something I enjoy.

[Justin Bergh] I think secretly, a lot of those guys

thought it was going to be easier

than what it was on the day.

They thought it was going to be an unbroken challenge.

They didn't think they were going to hit the penalty loop.

I think most of them, in the back of their minds,

had a break-up strategy.

But they didn't think they were going to have to use it.

[reporter] It's the muscle-up biathlon

for the men at the 2014 Reebok CrossFit Games.

I thought I could do it unbroken.

You know, that was the game plan.

I was kind of like, I'll get into it, and, you know,

adjust as needed.

But legitimately thought I could do it,

came back around to do my twelve.

I was like, I got this.

You know, some other guys are already running.

I'm like, shoot, I'm going to make up some points right here,

not going to be first, but I'll be top 10,

get to 11 muscle-ups, and missed that twelfth one.

[reporter] He says Froning has dropped off the rings.

And he's on the 200-meter penalty lap.

[reporter] That right there just proves

how deadly that penalty box is.

[Justin Bergh] Watching athletes fail a muscle-up

or get almost to the end of their set

and then have to take that penalty lap,

you could just watch the life leave their face.

It's hard.

And it's hard there, too, because you know you take

a quick penalty lap, and the last couple

reps are going to be easy. And it's disappointing.

The chips weren't falling where I thought they, uh, usually should, and pretty frustrated.

And then the carry--

[reporter] It's time for some straight-up grunt work.

How fast can you move some heavy objects?

the final heat of the sprint carry is underway,

and Rich Froning taking off.

He comes in to this, again, in fourth place

overall-- Just 32 points back of leader Noah Ohlsen.

[Rich Froning] I mean, started out a little too slow-- Part of it--

On the carry, made up some ground towards the end,

but still-- I was like 15th or something-- Something not good.

Stupid!

Shoot!

Gosh darnit!

Gosh darnit!

[narrator] With his momentum stalled

and an unknown event looming, Froning needed a break.

He would get one in the form of the clean speed ladder--

Lift five increasingly heavy barbells as fast as possible.

With each round, the field got smaller,

and the weights got heavier.

[Justin Bergh] So Rich Froning's one of the best lifters in the sport.

The guy is super strong, great technique, moves fast and efficiently.

[music playing]

The speed clean ladder should have been one of the events

that he could really turn it around.

And I remember the event starting off,

and he had a little bit of a stumble

on his very first round.

[Rich Froning] I go to hit 245, and catch it too far back.

And so I'm thinking, I didn't make it.

That's a lot of points on an event I should do well at.

So Dave calls the first heat first.

And I figured since my time was so bad,

I'd be in that first heat.

Well, he doesn't call my name.

So at that point, I'd honestly lost my chances to win the CrossFit Games were over.

Took my belt off, put it on the clock,

just kind of standing there.

-Second heat-- He calls my name. -[Dave Castro] Rich Froning!

Yeah, Rich!

[reporter] Heat number two coming up.

Look who's in lane one-- Rich Froning.

[reporter] He knows that this is important.

He needs to do well on this event.

[reporter] And Rich Froning attacks the 280-pound bar. No problem for him.

He is in the lead.

[Dave Castro] He made a big mistake.

He looked left and right in his heat,

and saw where he was relative to the field.

And he walked to the next barbells,

knowing there was still one more heat.

But Rich is so strong and good at those lifts

that he should've cleaned, stood up, and moved with a purpose.

[reporter] He looked over to the side

to see where people were on that one.

That's the Rich Froning that we know.

[reporter] Rich Froning will take heat number two!

[James Hobart] I definitely remember Rich not making the final heat of the cleans.

I was pretty surprised because I think, uh,

I remember when I was walking off, I was listening

to them announce names.

And then there was Rich sitting right on the edge of the-- Edge of the court.

[Justin Bergh] And you could tell when you looked at Rich's face

at that point, he wasn't himself.

He didn't look like the same confident past champion,

like everything was going his way,

or he was just waiting on Sunday to make a big push.

It looked like he was mentally and physically just out of it, at that point.

And I remember thinking, like, he could be in trouble here.

Dang it, Heber.

Not only do you have to win these heats,

you must dominate these heats.

-Thanks, Darren. Thanks, Coach. -I know.

I know. But--

I'm trying.

It's not that I'm not trying. Well, I know that.

I mean, what's the top weight?

[Justin Bergh] It was about halfway through Saturday.

I remember that Rich Froning wasn't standing out the way he had in the past.

Normally by Saturday afternoon, he's starting to climb,

and it looks like he's going to run away from it.

And this is the first time that going into Saturday evening,

it looked like he was really in trouble.

And it didn't look like anybody that was in the top three

was going to give him any relief.

[music playing]

[narrator] Froning was no stranger to adversity,

especially in life.

In 2007, tragedy struck his family.

Donnie, Froning's best friend, cousin, and brother

was killed in a car accident.

It was-- it was pretty hard to watch just because Donnie was his-- He was his guy.

Man, he was my best friend, and, uh, it was tough.

It was hard-- Still hard.

[crying]

So also, his younger brother-- Who was two years younger than him,

two years older than Darren and Matt passed away, too, so--

It was pretty traumatic to our family to lose both of them

in such a short period of time.

It put a lot of things into perspective,

showed, uh, you're not invincible.

Something you don't normally prioritize

becomes a priority-- Family.

I was the middle child, and going from being the middle child to the oldest

just like that-- It just kind of-- It hit me hard.

I really didn't know how to take it.

It was-- It was devastating, to say the least.

You're never going to be able to replace them,

but you want to watch out for them-- Like Darren,

and all the-- And Mitch, and Dustin, and Marcus--

You take some responsibility for them.

And so, you know, like I said, never want to replace,

but you still try to step into that role a little bit.

He stepped in like a big brother, you know.

He kind of took me under his wing

and watched out for me, which at the time, I really needed it.

I think it helped, um, a lot when Darren moved down here.

It kind of healed Rich a little bit because Darren and Donnie were a lot alike.

So you grow up, mature a little bit-- Not immediately.

Took a little bit of time, took getting married.

They're there with them, picking him up when he's down,

and I pray to Donnie and Matt specifically to just be there, just be with Rich.

I feel like he's their main reason he's done so well.

I feel like they have not left his side through this whole experience.

[man] So there's something special about when

you turn the lights on for the final heats

in the tennis stadium.

Push pull-- Yup, did not think that event was going to be great.

[reporter] Rich Froning-- Fifth place overall,

coming into this event--

[man] I absolutely love events like that because

I like where-- Where people have to figure stuff out, like on the fly.

And I think that-- That event was great.

It was just one of those events-- You've never done

anything really like it so you don't really know what to expect.

[man] This is a good workout for Rich.

Handstand push-ups of any kind are always in his wheelhouse.

I think in the back of his head,

he knew that he had to beat everybody that was within range.

[reporter] The final heat of the final event of Saturday.

[reporter] You can see that he's got to throw it,

trying to battle for a position to keep that rope under tension--

One, and to keep moving-- And consistently the whole time, too.

Going out, hit my first set of handstand push-ups

better than I thought I would, and then kept doing them fine.

My shoulders were good, kept going,

staying write neck-and-neck with Josh.

[reporter] Rich Froning, on his second sled pull.

Rich Froning got his sled hung up there for a second now.

Stoneberg's sled is the closest.

But Froning is chewing up more ground with each pull.

Rich Froning!

[cheers]

Hearing it from this crowd as he is the first one done.

But Josh Bridges is in the lead.

Rich Froning is through nine.

Josh Bridges has a chance to win this event, but here comes Rich Froning.

Josh Bridges with about a 10-foot lead.

Froning on the left, Bridges on the right.

Bridges is keeping just ahead of Froning on the sled pull.

Josh Bridges will not quit!

Neither will Rich Froning!

Josh Bridges, under the lights, does it again!

[no audio]

[Justin Bergh] They both cross the finish line.

Rich is pumped.

Josh is pumped.

And they give each other, like, this, like, bro hug at the end of things.

And it felt like you could have, like, set off an earthquake at that point.

What are you wearing tomorrow so we can match again like we did the last two days?

I'll probably wear the red.

No, I washed the blue in my sink with regular soap.

The blue and red-- Here.

[announcer] Amanda Krenz is with Josh Bridges and Rich Froning.

Oh, shit!

Guess who's back on top.

Let me just take a second and ask you about this event.

[cheers]

The overall men's standings just showed up.

So that's what everyone's cheering about at the moment.

My-- my bros.

Yup.

Fronterage.

Fronterage.

I would kind of describe Rich's hotel room

at the Games this past year sort of like "Animal House" meets "Pumping Iron."

-Crazy. -Chaos

Controlled chaos.

[Darren Hunsucker] Like a low-end college frat house.

[Hillary Froning] The total opposite of everybody else at the CrossFit Games.

People, bodies everywhere.

There was a pile of all the clothes of the colors

he didn't want to wear.

[Darren Hunsucker] People coming in and out, just joking around.

[James Hobart] A little mini fridge, which I don't think

was ever shut during the entire time.

Just food, like, thrown around, like, everywhere.

And food, everywhere.

We had, like, Lay's potato chips, and Pringles cans,

and, uh, probably there was a bag of Mini-Snickers

laying around somewhere.

Okay. There's two beds.

There's a minimum eight to nine guys in his hotel room.

Every night.

This is actually the same set-up at home.

[laughing]

Keeps him in-- Keeps him in game mode.

[James Hobart] Going into Sunday morning,

there was a solid stack of Papa John's pizza boxes,

half-eaten and empty.

You're just scratching off the cheese-- My favorite part.

Yup.

I've had three bites off of it. I don't know.

[James Hobart] It was just a total mess.

They don't talk about the Games. They don't talk about CrossFit.

[Darren Hunsucker] Kind of keeping the mood loose and stuff, you know.

But everybody's joking around, watching TV.

[Hillary Froning] And he wants to be around people who are funny

and who just want to hang out.

Hair regrowth treatment.

[man] I'm so glad that's not me.

[laughing]

Oh, you know, just getting ready for another day coaching.

Uh, it's-- It's better for me, too, just mentally.

I like to be around people.

If I'm by myself, then I start to-- You know, especially,

earlier in the week this year, I start feeling sorry for myself, stuff like that.

So some people might look at it, and think

it's a little interesting, but hey, it's what we do.

Who's getting breakfast?

Please, tell.

I'm ready.

I don't want to release it, like, right now.

Otherwise, it won't mean anything

when I'm screaming at him.

He's like, yeah, yeah, I've already heard this.

My legs--

This is gonna hurt.

It's gonna be fun... gonna be fun.

[Rich Froning] I don't know what it is about Sunday.

I don't know if it's just that when everybody else is kind

of beat down and wore out, that's kind of where I hit my stride is.

For me, that's a normal day.

I don't know how to work out not feeling sore, not feeling beat up.

I don't know if it's just something in my head clicks, and it's like, all right.

It's go time, you know.

This is-- This is the day when you make some moves.

[bell]

[reporter] Third and final heat underway.

[man] Traditionally, the athletes are not

able to be at their highest level

anymore because it's the end of a long week.

But he's still performing at a really high level

as if he's not fatigued at all.

[reporter] And Rich Froning has taken the lead!

When that event came up, I was very excited about it.

He does GHDs nonstop.

He can walk on his hands all day.

I like GHDs. I do a lot of GHDs.

Pretty decent at handstand walking and overhead lunge.

You know, my shoulder stamina's pretty decent.

[man] I remember getting off my last set of GHDs

and seeing Rich way up in front.

How'd he get up there?

[reporter] That Rich Froning is making his Sunday charge.

[reporter] You're kidding me right now.

[reporter] Rich Froning is filing up his crown.

A win on Sunday for Froning--

That is four straight wins on Sunday for Rich Froning at the CrossFit Games.

It was what I needed to do-- Start Sunday off right.

I didn't need Matt to do as well as he did on that one,

needed to get some points between us because he was in second at that point.

But, you know, hey, you got to do what you got to do.

And he did what he did-- Needed to do.

I just think that that event was

something that was great for-- For him

to get his confidence back up.

[cheers]

[narrator] Familiar obstacles stand in the way of Rich Froning

and a fourth straight CrossFit Games championship--

A rope, an unknown event, a dangerous challenger,

and seclusion.

[announcer] Immediately following that event,

your next event will be...

...briefed to you for the first time on the floor once you finish this.

I will hand out in accordance with you.

Therefore, immediately following this brief,

the 30 males and the 30 women who advance

are going into seclusion until their heat.

Oh man, that was-- When Dave said that, I was like, well,

this solidifies my, uh, decision to retire.

Workout will be fun.

The seclusion thing I don't enjoy, but whatever.

This one's going to be fast.

Four-minute time cap, 30 people, six people in each heat-- is that it?

Be fast.

When Fraser's behind me--

Just be fast.

I think-- I think you've figured out finally how to move fast now.

Thank you.

Bar of some sort--

"I don't care" bar.

Let's go sit in a room and look at each other

and twiddle our thumbs for awhile.

Lord, bout three again today.

Just ask You to be with Rich right now

and help him to be strong.

Give him Your warrior spirit, give him Your speed,

and give him You grace, Lord.

Ask You just to be with him now.

Walk with him. And be with all these athletes.

-It's in Your name we pray, Amen. -Amen.

Good luck, bud.

Get them.

We're going to seclusion right now.

Dude, remember that year we were all stuck in that cave?

That's exactly where we're going again.

That's where we're going.

It's so bad.

2010.

Was that 2010?

Gave me, like, I had nightmares about that for years.

Being sequestered, or put in a room-- And it was, like,

the one thing I remember from the Games in 2010 that I just-- I hated it.

It was one of those things.

If we'd have done it in 2011, and 2012, and 2013,

it would have been too routine and too gimmicky.

And I didn't think they saw it coming.

And I was right. They didn't see it coming.

I'm telling you. You better check Fraser, Dude.

He's got something taped up in here.

I heard something vibrating up his butt.

That ass, though.

Yeah! Get in there, dude.

Just-- You don't have to like it. You don't have to like it.

-[indistinct conversation] -A little higher. A little higher.

Yeah!

We went back, of course, back in that room.

And this was a completely different experience than 2010.

It was-- We were having fun.

Bring it in, boys.

Bring it in.

Real close.

Come on. I got a story to tell.

We're joking around. It was a lot different.

It was a lot like hanging out here-- Movie quotes,

making fun of people-- It's what we do.

This was the first year that Rich Froning

had not clenched by the time the final workout was administered.

So you've got two athletes, in particular.

You've got Tommy Hackenbruck and Matt Fraser.

Both of them performed better than Rich on a very similar

workout at Regionals, and that's the pull-ups and the overhead squat.

[man] Tommy Hackenbruck and Matt Fraser dismantled

that 64 and 8 workout.

[Dave Castro] That workout, obviously, was an expression

and evolution of the 64 and 8.

It was the Games version.

It wasn't totally obvious, I think, to everyone who was going to come out on top.

Like there was definitely an opportunity,

I think, for Fraser to come out and make an upset.

And so Rich, by no means, has this thing on luck.

Someone said, "Oh, don't worry.

"A couple years ago, Rich- Rich lost the whole thing because of rope climbs."

And I just remember then, I'm like,

"this man lost the World Championships off rope climbs five years ago."

You don't think he's practiced a couple times?

[Rich Froning] And Matt was close.

So I was a little-- There was some pressure there. I was like, I gotta go.

It's not one of these workouts that I can just take my time, stay within myself.

I was like, you're going to have to go

and just hope nothing-- Nothing happens.

He's good at overhead squats.

I'm good at overhead squats.

So it was just kind of a-- Whoever got to the bar first is going to finish it up.

Is there water or chalk on the floor?

Out-- Out there?

No idea.

Good luck, dude.

Now you get to this deal where he's battled back. He's got a couple workouts left.

The other one-- He doesn't know what's going to be,

like he's not looking to make anymore mistakes.

And he knows every single point matters.

And it's just the whole-- It's a rope climb again, right?

It's Rich Froning in a rope climb, which is his nemesis

from the past which he's so murdered

that will never even be close to a weakness

ever again, as he displayed.

He's so talented with a barbell that when that thing came out,

I think he was just like, "oh, yeah, it's going to happen."

And once again, I'm going to let everyone around here know

you guys are working out with me.

I'm not working out with you.

[cheers]

[reporter] Two events remain, and these athletes only know one of them.

Up next for them, it's Thick 'n Quick.

[bell]

Final heat of Thick 'n Quick underway.

[Rich Froning] Three, two, one, go-- One rope climb didn't feel so bad.

I did not want to get no reps on the rope climb.

That's just-- You're done at that point.

[man] You get to the top of the first rope climb.

You hit, and then I remember him just, like, firemen pole down--

Shoot!

And I just remember thinking, like, oh, shit.

I gotta learn how to do that.

[reporter] Last year, three events on Sunday-- Rich Froning won them all.

This year, three events on Sunday-- Rich Froning has already won one of them.

[cheers]

[reporter] Rich's-- Rich Froning's speed up this rope is absolutely impressive.

But he is speed-roping up and speed-roping down.

[Rich Froning] You go on that fourth one,

and I was like, ooh, man, went a little too quick on this one.

About halfway up, I was like, ooh, grips-- Grips going.

I needed some chalk.

Come down, borrowed some of Matt's chalk.

I was gonna give it back.

-Sorry, bro. -Yeah.

That was my favorite moment of the Games.

He got off the rope, and he saw chalk there.

And he just reached over.

But it looked really intentional.

It looked really, like, yeah, like I'm taking your chalk,

and I'm going to take this crown.

And you know, while I'm still here,

I am the CrossFit Games Champion.

What he did on the Think 'n Quick was so damn cool.

[reporter] And now he makes his way to the 245-pound barbell.

There's no bar going on the back, just closed-hand jerk, and just starts going.

You're like, this dude is running this thing.

[reporter] Whoa!

[Rich Froning] I thought Matt was a lot closer than he was. So I was-- I was going.

I was like, I'm not having the same thing that happened to me

at Regionals with Scott going.

Just running it start to finish,

and everyone else is here because he permits them to work out with him.

[cheers]

[reporter] Three for Froning.

And he is one step closer to his fourth CrossFit Games Championship.

Five straight event wins on Sunday, dating back to last year.

[Dave Castro] He kills all the doubt.

You know, Matt Fraser wasn't going to win.

Matt Fraser did great.

But Rich just-- Just cleared house.

I love a blowout.

I love when they just romp the crap out of the other team.

And I like to see when Froning just decimates the field

and walks around like, "oh, I thought I was the only one working out."

I just-- I love that.

He seals the deal in clenches. And all he's gotta do after that is beat

Matt through Double Grace.

I want to throw up.

[cheers]

I want to throw up right now.

[Dave Castro] One minute, one minute!

So Dave announces it.

But then, in your mind, you're like,

was somebody playing a trick?

Like, are they just messing with us?

There's a lot of things going through your head.

That just mental aspect of okay, Grace-- Cool, got it.

But then hearing that you have to do 60 reps,

and you have 30 seconds to do it,

and all the game plans that athletes put together

to attack a workout-- You can't do that on something like that.

And that's the cool aspect of it is like, okay, I just have to move.

What also must be so terrifying to work out with

this dude is how incredibly compliant he is, right?

Oh, you're going to do grace.

He's like, okay, we can do grace-- Got you.

Double Grace-- OK, fine.

Now it's 60 reps.

Like there's just no-- Just whatever you tell him to do,

he's like, okay, well, I'll excel at that.

If anything is Rich's jam, I would say it's something like Double Grace.

[bell]

[announcer] Here we go!

Final heat of the final event of the 2014 Reebok CrossFit Games-- Double Grace.

[Rich Froning] Three, two, one, go. I was talking to Matt.

He's like, I don't know if singles may be the way to go.

And he's like, I think we can do fives.

So I'm like all right. So I tried.

I was like, nope-- Twos.

But if you watch him drop the barbell, count in your head.

On the first grace, there's about three to four seconds.

On the second grace, there's five seconds in between.

1,1000, 2,1000, 3,1000, 4,1000. Pick it up.

For 60 repetitions-- Boom.

Just like that-- And that's Rich's game.

[reporter] He just dominates the field

in anything and everything that's thrown in his direction.

Jason was right ahead of me, so I had to do some work.

And I was like, well, I'm this close.

I'm almost done.

It's the last time I'll be in this stadium,

might as well push through and try to win another event.

[reporter] Five reps to go for Rich Froning.

2011 Fittest Man on Earth.

2012 Fittest Man on Earth.

2013-- Rich Froning-- The Fittest Man on Earth.

In 2014, Rich Froning is the Fittest Man in history!

[cheers]

I was happy. It was-- It was good.

It was what I needed to do.

Finishing the Games with a win was the way I needed it to end.

It was the way I wanted it to end.

I wanted him to win because I knew that this was it.

And he wasn't just saying it.

[cheers]

No doubt that Rich Froning is the fittest athlete on earth.

And I maintain the argument about the fittest athlete in history.

Rich, being the fittest man in history.

He is without a doubt the fittest man in history.

There's no one who's ever been this fit before.

There's no one this fit now.

[Justin Bergh] He's not just the fittest man in history.

He's probably will go down as one of the best competitors that you're ever gonna find.

[man] Any single metric that you could test--

He can blend them together and come out on top of any field.

We have seen the data.

We have it listed of what he's accomplished.

Especially with his performance across the open, across Regionals, across sectionals,

across the Games-- An extremely legitimate claim

born through competition that he is the fitness man in history.

Yeah, I think so.

He established a precedent in fitness

that everybody else will be measuring themselves against for the rest of time.

[Pat Sherwood] I don't know what he's doing right now.

But wherever he is right now, he's the fittest person in the world.

And wherever he is tomorrow at this time,

that's where the fittest person in the world will be.

And there's the potential that if he doesn't show up

at the Games and someone else wins,

they're just the fittest because he didn't show up that year.

I want to see somebody beat him at the Games,

and then I will be able to say without a shadow of a doubt,

"yes, you're fitter than Rich Froning

"because I saw it with my own eyes," you know,

not just that he was out doing something else.

He's redefined what it means to be fit through using CrossFit

and through how we've tested it in CrossFit.

Was there someone 20, 30, 40 years ago

who had the capacity he did?

Possibly-- Who knows?

But they didn't have the constantly

varied functional movements executed at high intensity to express that capacity.

And they didn't have an event like the CrossFit Games to show it to the world.

So no, I'm not satisfied with what I've done so far.

There's so-- I've got to do more.

I don't know what that more is.

But there's still more to do.

[music playing]