The CrossFit Series: Part Five - Katrín Davíðsdóttir

The fittest woman on earth’s name is Katrín Davíðsdóttir. She is an Iceland native and won the CrossFit Games in both 2015 and 2016. The unique thing about Davíðsdóttir’s dominant CrossFit career is that she was not always the best, unlike Mat Fraser.

In 2014, just one year before she went on to win the Games, Katrín failed to even qualify for them.

CrossFit is known for introducing completely new exercises into its qualifying rounds, and this year it was the legless rope climb paired with normal sprints. The legless rope climbs are simple to explain, but very hard to execute. You grasp the rope and climb with your legs in an L shape straight out in front of you. At the end of the event, Davíðsdóttir finished just nine points behind a qualifying spot for the Games. She was left in tears.

Katrín’s training from then on until the 2015 CrossFit Games was relentless. She has said in many interviews with health professionals that her training always consists of multiple trips to the gym with 4 main parts to her workout. The warm up, power and strength, conditioning and core work. Each contains different movements every day and is varied in length. The warm up could be anything from burpees to rowing.

The power and strength will usually consist of some sort of Olympic lift like the snatch or clean and jerk for low reps and high weight. Conditioning will be a combination of bodyweight exercises like handstand pushups or lower weight power cleans. Lastly, core work will be anything from your normal Russian twists to things like GHD situps, where your lower body is elevated off the ground during a situp.

“She puts in so much work and deserves [to be] the champion. I think she is a very dedicated athlete and wants to be the best of the best,” said Aida Kebede, a student at the University of Maryland who’s familiar with Davisdottir’s success.

Her success only came from dedication in the end though. Prior to her winning the Games, Davíðsdóttir moved to Boston to train with her coach Ben Bergeron full-time. According to Davíðsdóttir, their regimented training and year-round preparation was truly what helped her climb the rope that stood between her and being the fittest woman on earth.

“What I like the most about her is that she continues to find new ways to challenge herself,” said Cameron Doney, a student at the University of Maryland.