Fittest Man on Earth
Meet 3-time CrossFit Games champ Mat Fraser
A fourth consecutive title. A chance at etching his name alongside the greatest of all time. Another $300,000.
All are within reach for Mat Fraser as the 2019 CrossFit Games near, but none of those cross his mind when he’s deadlifting loaded barbells and cranking out handstand push-ups six hours a day, six days a week.
The current reigning Fittest Man on Earth instead focuses on ensuring there are no weaknesses in his workouts, no ways for his competitors to catch up.
“Every day of my training is thinking, ‘All right, what am I awful at?’ and working on it,” the 29-year-old told USA TODAY on a recent Monday, the only day of the week he devotes solely to rest and recuperation.
If you’re searching for the answer to that question in past Games results, you’d be hard-pressed to find it. Of the 14 events done last year, Fraser won three and finished outside of the top five only four times. He took the lead after the third workout and rode it all the way to the podium, besting second-place finisher Patrick Vellner by a record-setting 220 points.
In fact, all of Fraser’s victories have set records until he returned to break them himself, consistently widening the seemingly insurmountable gap that exists between Fraser and his opponents. The only one he has yet to conquer has held steady since 2014, when Rich Froning Jr. cemented his legacy in CrossFit by winning four straight Games. But even that is at risk as Fraser enters the 2019 competition, set for Thursday to Sunday at Alliant Energy Center in Madison, Wisconsin, the clear favorite.
It’s no secret other elite athletes around the world are trying to chase down the reigning champion, but the odds of anyone catching him are slim.
“The only word to describe it exactly is dominant. He’s made very few mistakes. He’s worked on anything that was somewhat of a weakness, and he’s made it very obvious that he’s the guy to beat right now,” said six-time Games athlete Josh Bridges of San Diego.
“There isn’t a guy that I’m like, ‘This guy might beat him. This guy has a chance.’ Looking at the field, it’s like everyone else is playing for second right now. That’s the only way to describe it. It’s kind of like the Tiger Woods era where he was winning every single major.”
Fraser’s drive to climb ropes, push weighted sleds and muscle his 5-7, 195pound frame up on the still rings doesn’t come from the pursuit of tying the athlete he has been compared to since finishing just behind Froning at his first Games in 2014. The motivation is the same as it was when Fraser took to CrossFit in 2012: a love for working hard in the gym and an awareness of what the alternative would be.
“I’ve worked the nine-to-five desk job. I’ve read over contracts, all that stuff. I think it was great having that experience because it makes me grateful for the opportunity that I’m in. I’m not looking at it as, ‘Ugh, I have to go to the gym today.’ It’s like, ‘Nope. I know what the other option is, so this is great!’ ”
Fraser earned a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Vermont in 2014 but hasn’t had time to put it to use yet. These days, his life consists of “a whole lot of eat, sleep and work out.”
For most of the year, he lives in Cookeville, Tennessee, with his fiancée and chef, Sammy Moniz, and trains at CrossFit Mayhem, the gym owned by Froning (who retired from individual competition in 2015 and now competes in team events). During the summer, he and Moniz return to his native Vermont where he trains at Champlain Valley CrossFit.
Late mornings and early afternoons are spent at the box doing typical CrossFit workouts consisting of Olympic weightlifting, gymnastics movements and anything overhead. After a big lunch prepared by Moniz — Fraser’s diet consists of “a lot of meat, vegetables, rice in every different variation you can imagine” unless Moniz serves up her “killer cheesecake” — and a bit of rest, he hits his home gym for single modality movements such as rowing, assault bike, squatting and anything that can be done without hitting the 6-foot ceilings.
Since November, Fraser has been preparing for the Games alongside twotime Fittest Woman on Earth and 2016 Olympic weightlifter Tia-Clair Toomey. The two hadn’t had any contact before crossing paths in Cookeville, but they “just started training together and everything clicked perfectly.”
When Fraser told Toomey he was leaving Tennessee to go home for a few months, she “was kind of like, ‘What the heck? We have a good thing going here!’ ” Fraser recalled. So he invited her to Champlain Valley and the partnership continued.
Although he tries to avoid training alongside competitors because “it can turn every day of training into a competition,” Fraser can work out alongside Toomey without feeling like he’s constantly at the Games.
“She’s a great marker to go against every single day, but she’s not my competition. So I’m not branching away from my day-to-day goal. If she beats me in a workout, I’m not going home and losing sleep over it. It’s just great company in the gym, and it’s good motivation.”
In between eating and exercise, Fraser has an extensive recovery routine that includes “rolling out with a foam roller, static stretching, ice tubs, hot tubs, saunas,” getting massages, doing physical therapy, occasionally plopping down in the pool with his socks on and using a Theragun, a muscle treatment device that is intended to decrease lactic acid and increase blood flow.
Any free moments left over are spent traveling for sponsorship obligations, designing shoes for Nike or reading about real estate and rental properties, Fraser’s current interest and potential post-CrossFit career path.
But even after steadily growing in notoriety since winning his first title in 2016, he still isn’t used to all the doors that open with fitness fame.
“I get to do stuff all year long that I always wonder, ‘How did I end up here?’ Sammy and I have gotten literally to travel the world to see stuff that we would never have gotten to see or experience,” he said.
“Without Crossfit, that would’ve never happened, and it’s an experience that Sammy and I will talk about for the rest of our lives.”
As they do every year after the Games, Fraser and Moniz will go to his family’s camp on the lake to disconnect, sit on their dock and talk about life.
But don’t expect the Fittest Man on Earth to slow down any time soon.
There’s still a fourth title to win, one more record to add and another giant check to claim.