Anníe Mist Þórisdóttir

CrossFit Games Career

Anníe first appeared in the sport of CrossFit in July 2009, when she traveled from Reykjavik to Aromas, California to compete at the third annual CrossFit Games. She had been taking "bootcamp" classes but had only a month of CrossFit experience. Anníe finished five of the eight events within the top 10 (out of 70 competitors), including an event win on the Sandbag Sprint (1:07.4) and fourth-place finishes on the Sledge Hammer Drive (5:56) and the Triplet (86). On the final day of competition, an event called "The Chipper" was announced that included ring muscle-ups. With no exposure to this men's gymnastics movement, Anníe attempted to learn the movement before going out on the competition floor with the help of coaches and fellow athletes to no avail. On the competition floor, Anníe completed the 15 cleans (100-lb.), 30 toes-to-bar, and 30 box jumps (20 inches) before reaching the 15 muscle-ups. She attempted the muscle-up many times unsuccessfully before finally getting one rep in front of the cheering crowds. She earned a DNF on the event, and dropped in the overall standings to 11th, but made herself known as a contender for the title of "Fittest on Earth."

In 2010, the Games had moved from Aromas, California, to the Home Depot Center in Carson, California. After the 2010 Europe Regional, she picked up a coach, Jami Tikkanen, and worked on competition strategy. The 2010 Games went down as a competition between Kristan Clever and Anníe. Clever accumulated five event wins and three 2nd-place finishes to Anníe's four event wins, one 2nd, and one third. Anníe could now do muscle-ups, which was important since that skill/strength was thoroughly tested in the opening event, "Amanda" (a workout consisting of 9-7-5 repetitions of muscle-ups and 95-lb. snatches), where she took 12th with a time of 12:07. Once again, Anníe excelled at grunt work with sandbags winning the "Sandbag Move," and won other events such as "Pyramid Double Helen," "Deadlift/Pistol/Double-under," and "Wall Burpee/Rope Climb." She finished the Games in second place behind Clever.

In 2011, Anníe was dominant. She won every stage of the CrossFit Games season beginning with the inaugural worldwide Open (1st, worldwide), and continuing through the Europe Regional and the Games. Anníe surpassed 2010 Games champion Kristan Clever by a margin of 43 points thanks to top 5 finishes on 8 of the 10 events, including three event wins (Rope/Clean, Skills 2, Dog-Sled) and four third-place finishes (Killer Kage, The End 1, The End 2, The End 3). Anníe shared the podium with Clever (2nd overall) and Rebecca Voigt (3rd overall).

In 2012, Anníe and Rich Froning Jr. became the first athletes to win the CrossFit Games twice.

In 2013, Anníe was not able to defend her title due to a back injury (a herniated disc) sustained while too casually lifting heavy weight. She withdrew during the third week of the five-week Open. At the time, she said she could not do basic movements like squatting without weight. She questioned whether she could ever walk again and spent the rest of the year recovering.

She entered the 2014 season notably less confident than she had appeared in past seasons. In her first live competitive appearance since her injury, Open Announcement 14.5 in San Francisco, Anníe trailed far behind the other champions, Sam Briggs, Rich Froning, Jason Khalipa, and Graham Holmberg, and received the high-fives of her competitors at the end of the workout while shaking her head in apparent disappointment. Any athlete that thought there was blood in the water was proven wrong in the next two stages of the season, however. Anníe went on to win the 2014 Europe Regional, while 2013 Games champion Sam Briggs of England failed to qualify (4th overall) due to a poor performance on the max distance handstand walk. At the 2014 Games, Anníe had a slow start with event finishes in the teens and 20s, but as the weekend progressed Anníe appeared to have lost her hesitancy and guarding, as she bagged top 10 finishes including 1st - 2nd - 1st on the final three events.

In 2015, she won the worldwide Open for a second time before taking a third at the new, combined Meridian Regional (the top 30 athletes from Europe and top 10 from Africa competed together in Copenhagen for five qualifying spots to the Games). This was her lowest Regional finish to date, as the four-time Europe Regional champion.

In the third event of the 2015 Games, Murph (1 mile run, 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 air squats, 1 mile run all completed with a weighted vest), Anníe got heat stroke. She tried to continue to compete, but decided to withdraw before the final three events on Sunday. Even so, two of the three women who finished on the podium, champion Katrin Davidsdottir and Sara Sigmundsdottir in third place, were Icelandic (the third-place finisher in the men's individual competition, Björgvin Karl Guðmundsson, is also from Iceland).

CrossFit Games results

Other athletic accomplishments

Anníe placed first for women at the 2013 Dubai Fitness Competition, taking away more than Dh650,000 ($177,000) in prize money. She defeated NFL running back Justin Forsett in a push-up contest while returning from a back injury. Anníe competed in the D group of the 2015 International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Championships. In the 69kg weight class, she lifted 88kg in the Snatch and 108kg in the Clean & Jerk for a final total of 196kg placing 35th at a bodyweight of 68.05kg.