CrossFit Mayhem is a

CrossFit CrossFit is a branded fitness regimen that involves constantly varied functional movements performed at high intensity. The method was developed by Greg Glassman, who founded CrossFit with Lauren Jenai in 2000, with CrossFit its registered trad ...

affiliate located in

Cookeville, Tennessee Cookeville is the county seat and largest city of Putnam County, Tennessee, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, its population was reported to be 34,842. It is recognized as one of the country's micropolitan areas, or smaller ...

. Mayhem was started in 2009 by

Rich Froning Jr Rich may refer to: Common uses * Rich, an entity possessing wealth * Rich, an intense flavor, color, sound, texture, or feeling **Rich (wine), a descriptor in wine tasting Places United States * Rich, Mississippi, an unincorporated communi ...

in his father's barn as a place to train. In 2012, Rich opened the original downtown facility, but almost immediately began plans to expand. That relocation/expansion occurred in 2016. Due in large part to Froning's success at the

CrossFit Games The CrossFit Games is an annual athletic competition owned and operated by CrossFit, LLC. Athletes compete in a series of events at the Games, which may be various standard CrossFit workouts consisting of metabolic conditioning exercises, weightl ...

, Crossfit Mayhem has become something of a pilgrimage site for many Crossfit Athletes and fans. CrossFit Mayhem has fielded one or more teams at the

since 2013, and the team led by Rich Froning has won all the team competitions at the Games from 2015 to 2021 apart from 2017 when they came second, and 2020 when no team competition was held.

CrossFit Games

While the Affiliate Cup first appeared in 2009, CrossFit Mayhem first fielded a competitive team only in 2013 when it finished 27th. In 2015, upon retiring from individual competition, Rich Froning joined the CrossFit Mayhem team and the team has not finished lower than 2nd place at the CrossFit Games since, despite significant turnover of athletes. The 2015 team was titled CrossFit Mayhem Freedom. The team achieved back-to-back wins in 2015 and 2016. In 2017, the team competed as CrossFit Mayhem. However, this year the team finished 48 points behind Wasatch CrossFit in second place. 2018 was the first time that CrossFit Mayhem competed two teams at the

. Mayhem Freedom took home the Championship after a year out of the top spot, while Mayhem Independence narrowly missed a podium spot, finishing 4th overall. In 2019, the Affiliate Cup was put on pause, as Teams no longer had to belong to the same CrossFit Affiliate in order to compete together. This ushered in the brief era of the "Super Teams," though it did little to affect Mayhem's success in CrossFit Competition. Mayhem Freedom repeated as the

2019 CrossFit Games The 2019 CrossFit Games was the 13th iteration of the annual competition in the sport CrossFit held from August 1–4, 2019, at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. The men's competition was won by Mat Fraser, the women ...

Champions. Also in 2019, Elly Kabboord tested positive for the performance-enhancing substance

clenbuterol Clenbuterol is a sympathomimetic amine used by sufferers of breathing disorders as a decongestant and bronchodilator. People with chronic breathing disorders such as asthma use this as a bronchodilator to make breathing easier. It is most commonl ...

, receiving a four-year ban from the sport and forcing Mayhem to re-shuffle their roster, adding Carolyne Prevost to the Independence team in time for the French Throwdown. Due in part to these changes, Independence failed to qualify. Due to the

COVID-19 Pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, CrossFit was forced to make significant changes to the

2020 CrossFit Games The 2020 CrossFit Games was the 14th CrossFit Games held on October 23–25, 2020, at the CrossFit Ranch in Aromas, California, United States. Mathew Fraser and Tia-Clair Toomey were again the respective winners of this year's men and women compe ...

, one of which was the elimination of team competition. Froning attempted to organize a replacement team competition titled Mayhem Madness, but that too had to be cancelled due to travel restriction. In 2021, CrossFit returned to the Affiliate Cup model, resulting in the ineligibility of Scott Panchik and Chyna Cho. Andrea Nisler and Taylor Williamson, formerly of Mayhem competitor OC3 Black, both joined the team, along with Rich's cousin Chase Hill. CrossFit Mayhem was crowned the

2021 CrossFit Games The 2021 CrossFit Games was the 15th edition of the CrossFit Games held from July 27 to August 1, 2021. Justin Medeiros won the men's competition, Tia-Clair Toomey the women's, and CrossFit Mayhem the team's. The qualification process for the ...

Affiliate Cup Champion for the 5th time. In 2022, CrossFit Mayhem has three teams qualified for the

, the first time three teams from the same gym location qualified for the Games (previously Invictus sent three teams but from different locations). Samuel Cournoyer joined the Froning-led CrossFit Mayhem Freedom team, which won the teams competition at the Games. Froning announced his retirement from team competition in October 2022 after winning their sixth title.

CrossFit Games results table

CrossFit Games Team Roster

Significant current and former Mayhem athletes

* Rich Froning, Jr * Mat Fraser *

Tia-Clair Toomey Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr (born 22 July 1993) is an Australian weightlifter and CrossFit Games athlete. She is the most dominant athlete at the CrossFit Games, having won six times at the competition. She also won the gold medal in the women's even ...

* Scott Panchik * Dan Bailey * Chyna Cho * Sara Sigmundsdottir * Josh Bridges * Haley Adams

References

{{Reflist Cookeville, Tennessee micropolitan area CrossFit Sports in Tennessee