What Are the Most Impressive Comebacks in CrossFit History?

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Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up.

In today’s edition:

• Lucy Campbell’s win at the 2025 TYR WZA cemented her two-year comeback journey following a wrist injury. Check out some other impressive comebacks from CrossFit history below.

• There’s no better captive audience than a CrossFit class post-WOD. Learn how to take advantage of the ultimate “teachable moment” and improve your coaching.

• Get to know Brian “Tosh” Chontosh, and then sign your gym up for the Big Fish Foundation Community Challenge this month!

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“In the landscape of veteran service organizations, many of them focus on acute care. I call that event horizon – we're either close to having a catastrophic situation, or we're in crisis, right? And that's great, but there are very few organizations in the preventative maintenance space like us.” - Brian Chontosh, founder of the Big Fish Foundation.

CROSSFIT GAMES

The Most Impressive Comebacks in CrossFit History

At the 2025 TYR Wodapalooza in Miami, we witnessed one of the most impressive injury comebacks in CrossFit competition history. 

• After sitting out two seasons due to a wrist injury that required multiple surgeries, the UK’s Lucy Campbell, a 2022 CrossFit Games rookie, came out of nowhere to win the women’s division. Not only did she take the top spot, but she did so against a stacked field that included Arielle Loewen, Emily Rolfe, Brooke Wells, Alexis Raptis, and 2023 Games champion Laura Horvath. 

At one point, even coming back to competition at all seemed unlikely for Campbell. After her first operation, her surgeon told her, “There is literally nothing I can do for you.”

What makes Campbell’s comeback even more impressive comes down to three factors:

1. She sat out two full CrossFit Games seasons before coming back and winning one of arguably the top three biggest competitions of the year.

2. Campbell isn’t exactly a veteran in the sport. She only has one CrossFit Games to her name, where she placed 16th overall and had never finished on the podium at any major event before her injury. 

3. She wasn’t even able to perform movements like ring muscle-ups or barbell cleans until very recently, so the fact that she could even be competitive, let alone win, is worth noting.

Campbell’s comeback in Miami last month got us reminiscing about other noteworthy comebacks in CrossFit history. Here are the four we picked.

Most Impressive In-Competition Comeback 

Will Moorad’s 2022 Semifinals performance takes the cake as the most impressive come-from-behind moment during a competition. 

Remind me: Will Moorad was in 10th place, five spots, and 76 points out of the final qualifying spot heading into the last day at the 2022 Syndicate Crown Semifinals. It was a deficit that seemed impossible to overcome.

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SPEED READS

💍 💪 David Perry Jewelry x Laura Horvath: Announced on Instagram earlier this week, David Perry Jewelry signed 2023 Games champ Laura Horvath as an athlete ambassador for the brand. 

• From the post: “I’m truly thrilled about the opportunity to work with Laura. Watching her train and compete, it’s clear that her drive knows no limits. I can’t wait for the world to witness Laura’s dominance. The team at Perry is grateful to be a part of her journey.” - David Perry, Founder.

🚨🚨 The CrossFit Open Is Coming: The 2025 CrossFit Open will take place February 27-March 17, so get signed up now!

• Bundle and save on 2025 CrossFit Open shirts and Judges course registration here.

🏳️‍🌈💪Out in the Open: Launched in 2018, “Out in the Open” is the OUT Foundation’s all-gender, 100% inclusive fitness leaderboard for the LGBTQ+ community and allies. Learn more here and register now.

🌎🏆 2025 World Fitness Tour Roster: The highly anticipated competitive fitness tour announced its final two pro card athletes — Games champs and megastars Jeff Adler and Laura Horvath. In the meantime, the Online Challenger Qualifier I is now live! Register here.

ICYMI: CrossFit’s “Transgender Policy,” which originated in the 2019 Games rulebook and was there every year through 2024, was not included in the 2025 edition. It was replaced with a “Gender Classification Policy.” Learn more here.

MEMBER EXCLUSIVE

The Art of the Post-WOD Talk: Making Every Class Count

On the Chasing Excellence podcast recently, we got similar questions from two coaches about structuring mindset or other educational talks in the classes they’re running.

• After years of experimentation at my gym, I've discovered that timing and structure are everything when it comes to these crucial coaching opportunities.

Why The Post-WOD Window Matters

Science backs what many of us have intuitively discovered: athletes are like sponges after activity. Before a workout, though, they're more like bricks.

Dr. John Ratey, author of Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, demonstrated this through his work with the B.O.K.S. program (now called Active Kids), which got kids moving for 45 minutes before school started.

• His research shows that physical activity creates an optimal state for learning and engagement.

When athletes at your gym arrive for class, they're focused on one thing – getting whatever’s on the whiteboard done.

Try to deliver a pre-WOD lecture, and you'll likely face a room of anxious, distracted athletes wondering if you’ll ever stop talking.

THINGS TO…

READ

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HEAR

2023 Games Champ Laura Horvath on the Hurdle Podcast with Emily Abbate

• The 2023 CrossFit Games champ joined Hurdle for a conversation about strength, body image, and nutrition. She covers how she trains to embrace the different phases of her cycle, what has changed (or rather, what hasn't) since she came out on top, and why her early days of climbing lent themselves to excelling within the sport of CrossFit when her brother introduced her to it in 2016.
  #KADUZS

COMMUNITY

Put Your Gloves On, Not Your Hands Out: How the Concept of Community Helped Build the Big Fish Foundation

Founder and CEO of O2 Hydration Dave Colina has met some amazing people in his time. But none like Brian Chontosh. 

• The two met at the 2017 CrossFit Games when Colina’s O2 Hydration booth was situated across the way from the CrossFit seminar booth, where Chontosh was a staff member. 

Chontosh, or “Tosh,” left an indelible mark on Colina right away.

• Colina recalled: “The seminar staff would come over every morning while we were setting up, and Tosh would grab some O2 for the day. He would always bring the most positive vibes. He would come over and give everybody a high five with a big smile on his face…and man, that guy has the crispest high fives.” 

But Tosh was way more than the guy who gave crisp high-fives.

Some Background

Tosh enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1993, becoming an infantry officer in 2000. A few of his deployments over his 20 years of service included Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Assured Response in Liberia, and Phantom Fury. 

He has been awarded the Navy Cross, the nation’s second-highest award for valor in combat, in addition to many other medals.

Tosh was introduced to CrossFit from the wellspring. 

• “I met [CrossFit founder Greg Glassman] in 2000 at a seminar on the Marine Corps base,” Tosh told the Morning Chalk Up in an interview. “I did fairly well at the seminar, and Greg wanted me to stay in touch with him. He was collecting a lot of military guys to be a part of CrossFit, and he wanted to put me in touch with Nicole Carroll to help dial in my nutrition.”

HIGHLIGHTS

Celebrating a PR, hosting a fundraiser, this, that, or otherwise? Send us a tip.

• 💕Happy anniversary to Gui Malheiros and Luciana Dal Agnol.

• Happy birthday to Danielle Brandon and Streat Horner.

• Happy belated birthdays to Harry Lightfoot (2/5) and Josh Murillo (2/6).

• Happy early anniversary (2/7) to Dylan Malitsky and Katie Price. 

• 🎂Happy early birthday (2/7) to Cassidy Lance-McWherter and Scot Peterson.