You had to understand the ora of Rich Froning in 2014.

As the sport was gaining more and more notoriety, beginning first on a ranch in Aromas California and in a few short years moving to the Home Depot Center and attracting some of the greatest athletes the world has ever seen, there was one name that stood above the rest.

Rich Froning was a 27 year old, 3 time defending Crossfit Games champion coming off of the most dominate win in the Games short history the year before. The guy outworked every competitor, turned every weakness into a strength and was without a shadow of a doubt the face of the sport as it began to work its way into public consciousness. Young, handsome, homegrown, hardworking and god fearing. Crossfit hit the fuckin’ jackpot with this guy! And it wasn’t just that he won. It’s that more often than not, he made it look easy. So much so that his prowess overshadowed the fact that he was competing alongside some of the greatest competitors the sport would ever see, and that even in defeat, the story was never about the man who bested him, it was all about Rich.

But that wasn’t always the case.

Back in 2011 the competition was far more even. Having the three previous champions in the mix as well as some of the mainstays of the Crossfit Games since 2007, the field was stacked full of the most impressive names in the sport and the championship was up for grabs. Rich had come in 2nd the year before after leading the competition into the final event only to come up short on that fateful rope climb, and although he was the favourite coming in to 2011 it was far from set in stone. With the likes of Chris Spealler, Dan Bailey, Matt Chan and Ben Smith breathing down his neck he would have to battle tooth and nail against them all to emerge victorious. But there was one adversary that stood above the rest. And it was here, on July 29, 2011 that that man would crash onto the Crossfit scene and solidify himself as the the man Rich would have to go through if he wanted to win, when for the first time the world met Josh Bridges.

A former navy seal turned fierce rival of any man who would step onto a competition floor for the next 10 years, Josh ran away with the first event, literally, crossing the finish line over a minute before second place Chris Spealler. Josh would go onto win an event each day of the competition tying Rich for most event wins and coming second place overall. And while his entire performance stood out, there was one event that stood above all the rest when on the third and final day of competition Josh bridges became a household name in the Crossfit community when he won the aptly named “Dog Sled”.

For those of you who are unaware, here is the workout;

3 rounds of:

30 Double-Unders, 10 Overhead Squats @ 135#

followed by 3 rounds of:

10 Handstand Push-Ups, 40-foot Sled Push, Sled @ 385#

Now you have to understand something. Josh Bridges is considered to be a smaller Crossfit athlete. In a sport where his competitors average frame is 5’10”, 195#, Josh at the time was 5’5”, 160#. So when asked to maul a decently heavy barbell and drive a nearly 400# sled across the competition floor, you might not bet on this guy to come out on top. Turns out he eats Handstand Push-Ups for breakfast and doesn’t believe in gravity as he moved that sled faster than any of the field despite an obvious discrepancy in size and took the event ahead of Rich by 36 seconds And as they stood on the podium at the end of the day, Rich on top and Josh one step down, you had sense that as the years went by these two were going to give the world some epic battles that we would never forget.

After sitting out the 2012 Games due to a knee injury, Josh poked the bear by posting a video of him beating Rich’s time in the chipper event from the Games that he missed, making it clear that he wasn’t playing for second place. And although he would come up short once again as this was at the heart of Rich’s dominance, he was the same fierce competitor he had always been and you knew that if the stars aligned on the right moment at just the right time we would finally have the showdown we had all been waiting for.

And in 2014, we got it!

After nearly 3 days and 9 events at the 2014 Crossfit Games, Rich and Josh stood in 5th and 6th place respectively heading into the final event of the day. Under the lights at the Stub Hub Center on what would be Rich’s last Saturday night event as an individual, the energy in the air was electric as the American national anthem echoed out into the night in front of a pack tennis stadium and the athletes stood at the starting line ready to go. Here was the workout:

7 Strict Deficit Handstand Push-Ups

50’ Sled Pull @ 205#

8 Strict Deficit Handstand Push-Ups

50’ Sled Pull @ 260#

9 Strict Deficit Handstand Push-Ups

50’ Sled Pull @ 315#

10 Strict Deficit Handstand Push-Ups

50’ Sled Pull @ 370#

Look familiar?

After years of back and forth, victories in there respective regionals and speculation on who could possibly beat The Rich Froning on what was his final individual competition, it was another Handstand Push-Up/Sled workout that would cement their rivalry in Crossfit Games history.

From the beginning Josh took off faster than nearly everyone else, looking to give himself some breathing room for the later rounds as the sled got heavier. Leading the pack after round one along with another Games veteran in Ben Stoneberg, Josh pushed the pace so that the rest of the field had to give chase. Or so it seemed, when classically and almost on cue, as the rest of the field was frantically doing everything they could to get the job done, the champ, like he did every event, methodically kept his pace from the start and pulled ahead of Josh’s sled right at the end of round 3, running back to the HSPU wall as the crowed went crazy. It was looking like Rich would have his revenge, take his final Saturday night win and push for his 4th consecutive Crossfit Games championship. All he had to do was knock out the final 10 HSPU and bring his sled home. He kicks up. 1, 2, 3, a quick pause, 4, he breaks! While right next to him Josh completes his 5th, 6th and 7th reps, Rich kicks up and completes 3 more, Josh hasn’t come down! He’s on his 9th rep, barely getting there but he locks it out! Rich kicks down! Josh grinds his way out of his final rep, kicks down and sprints back to the sled for his final pull. He has a 10 second lead on Rich by the time he gets to the sled but Rich completes his HSPU’s and sprints back to his sled to finish the job. Josh is ahead but with each pull of the 370# sled the bigger man is making up ground. The crowd is going absolutely mad as they pass the halfway mark and it looks like Rich might catch him when literally seconds before the finish Rich’s sled pulls even with his rivals as Josh completely lays out to pull his sled to the finish, turns around and jumps over the line less than 2 seconds ahead of the champ and gives the greatest post win celebration there ever was.

The two embrace, everyone else finishes up, Josh takes the event win while Rich jumps back into the overall lead and steam rolls the competition on the final day to take home his 4th consecutive championship. Josh takes 4th.

It wasn’t just how close it was, it wasn’t that it was the last time they would compete against each other and it wasn’t that Josh won. It was that this was our sports first rivalry and it wasn’t certain that we were going to have a conclusion to it where the two of them battled it out one more time. But they did, and it was incredible. And as time goes on and more and more names rise and fall, this will forever remain, in my mind, the greatest moment in Crossfit Games history.