Wodapalooza

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Wodapalooza Miami
Wodapalooza logo.png
Tournament information
SportCrossFit
Location United States
Established2012; 10 years ago (2012)
Number of
tournaments
10
FormatMulti-event competition
Purse$500,000 (2022)[1]
WebsiteWodapalooza
Current champion
  • Elite men: Canada Patrick Vellner
  • Elite women: Republic of Ireland Emma McQuaid
  • Elite team men: United States The Boys
  • Elite team women: Sweden Team Kriger

Wodapalooza Miami (WZA) is an annual four-day functional fitness festival held in Miami centered on a CrossFit competition. The event was first established in 2012 and has since developed into one of the largest fitness festival in the world and a major CrossFit competition with thousands of athletes from around the world competing.

History[]

Bayfront Park, where Wodapalooza is held

Wodapalooza was founded in 2012 by Guido Trinidad and Steve Suarez.[2] They were originally invited to run free CrossFit classes at Bayfront Park in the summer of 2011, but were offered the possibility of turning it into a competition event by the park manager.[3][4] The first competition of "Wodapalooza Miami - A Fitness Festival" was single-day competition held on Saturday, February 4, 2012, with some preliminary events the previous day.[5][6][7] The competition is named after "WOD" or CrossFit's Workout of the Day,[8] while "palooza" denotes a festival or large-scale event.[9] The first Wodapalooza had 145 participating athletes and 500 spectators.[10]

The event proved highly popular and it quickly expanded in the following years. The number of athletes competing increased to 550 the second year, over 1,000 in 2015,[11] and reaching over 2,500 by 2019.[12][4] Due to increasing participation, the number of competing athletes at the competition had to be limited and an online qualification stage was introduced starting with the 2014 Wodapalooza for those who did not receive an invitation to compete.[13][14] The number of days of competition increased to two in 2013 (Saturday and Sunday), and eventually to four (Thursday to Sunday) by 2017,[7] and the number of competition stages at the venue also increased to four. The number of attendees rose to 7,000 in 2013,[15] 30,000 in 2017,[16] and up to 40,000 by 2020.[17] The prize purse also experienced similar growth; the total prize purse increased from $5,000 in the first year, $10,000 in 2014,[15] to $500,000 in 2022.[1] The 2022 event featured the biggest prize purse yet with the elite individual winners receiving $100,000, up from $50,000 the previous competition.[1][18]

Although the competition events for elite athletes are the main focus, Wodapalooza also provides fitness competitions for athletes of different age range and abilities from the early days.[3] In 2015, Wodapalooza became the first major functional fitness competition to offer an adaptive division for athletes with disabilities and impairement.[19]

Trinidad and Suarez partnered with Loud and Live in 2017 to run the Wodapalooza event in 2018. Loud and Live then acquired Wodapalooza in the months following the event.[20]

In October 2018, Wodapalooza was announced as a sanctioned event for the 2019 CrossFit Games where the winner can earn qualification for the Games.[21] Its name was changed from Wodapalooza Fitness Festival Miami (used since 2014) to Wodapalooza CrossFit Festival for the next two seasons.[22] In order to comply with the format for teams at the CrossFit Games, its usual teams of three separated by gender were replaced by mixed teams of four. In 2020, the event was moved from January of previous years to February.

The 2021 event was cancelled due to the Covid pandemic. The organizer of the event also opted not to be part of the CrossFit Games season, and moved the event back to January.[23] The 2022 event was streamed live free for the first time in 2022.

Venue[]

Wodapalooza is held at the Bayfront Park fronting Biscayne Bay in Miami. It features four stages for competition: the Flagler stage is the biggest with a seating capacity of 5,000; the Bayside stage, The Deck where the Gauntlet is held, and the Tina Hill Stage.

Competitions[]

There 48 divisions in the CrossFit competition, ranging from the elite men and women to various age and adaptive divisions.[24] The team competitions feature three-member teams of men and women.

Wodapalooza may also feature various event, such as Weightlifting Faceoff, a one-day Olympic lifting competition; WZA Strong, a competition that mixes strongman and functional fitness movements; and the Gauntlet.[7]

Events[]

Eight main events may be held at Wodapalooza for the CrossFit competition.

Winners[]

Year Elite individuals Elite teams
Men Women Men Women
2012 —
2013
2014 Samantha Briggs
2015[11] Noah Ohlsen Samantha Briggs
2016[25] Noah Ohlsen Brooke Wells Athletigen Two Grown Ups and The Kid
2017[26] Noah Ohlsen Camille Leblanc-Bazinet Misfit nLnM Team Progenex
2018[27][28] Streat Hoerner Katrín Davíðsdóttir Team Quebec Team Progenex
2019[29][30] Patrick Vellner Tia-Clair Toomey Team ROMWOD / WIT
2020[31] Patrick Vellner Tia-Clair Toomey Mayhem Freedom
2022[32] Patrick Vellner Emma McQuaid The Boys Team Kriger

References[]

  1. ^ a b c "Find out How Much Wodapalooza Prize Money Athletes Will Win". BoxRox. September 24, 2021.
  2. ^ Seiden, Michael. "Thousands of fitness fanatics descend on Miami for Wodapalooza". Local10.com.
  3. ^ a b Lax, Lauryn (December 29, 2014). "Wodapalooza. Past. Present. Future". FloElite.
  4. ^ a b "L&L Sports Podcast- Ep 8 Guido Trinidad Founder & Creator of WZA". Loud And Live Sports (Podcast) – via YouTube.
  5. ^ "Wodapalooza Miami - A Fitness Festival - Miami, Florida". Facebook.
  6. ^ "Focus on South Florida — Wodapalooza CrossFit Festival and Competition". CBS Local. January 31, 2012.
  7. ^ a b c "How to Watch WODAPALOOZA 2022 (+ Livestream)". BoxRox. January 10, 2022.
  8. ^ Daswick, Tyler. "Among the Zealots". Men's Health.
  9. ^ "-palooza". Lexico.
  10. ^ "About Wodapalooza". Wodapalooza.
  11. ^ a b Lax, Lauryn (January 22, 2015). "Samantha Briggs Defends Her 2015 Title". FloElite.
  12. ^ Marquez, Tommy (January 8, 2019). "How to Watch the Wodapalooza CrossFit Festival". Morning Chalk Up.
  13. ^ "Wodapalooza - Video Qualifier Introduction". YouTube. November 4, 2013.
  14. ^ "Wodapalooza Fitness Festival – WZA 2018". Boxletes.
  15. ^ a b Sentenac, Hannah (January 15, 2014). "Wodapalooza Fitness Competition to Bring Hardbodied Bros to Bayfront Park". Miami New Times.
  16. ^ Daswick, Tyler (May 2017). "Welcome to the Sufferfest". Men's Health. Vol. 32, no. 4. p. 10. Retrieved 18 January 2022.
  17. ^ Genetin-Pilawa, Joe (February 20, 2020). "Fun and Fitness in the Sun, Wodapalooza Draws Big Crowds". Morning Chalk Up.
  18. ^ Clark, Patrick (February 19, 2020). "Wodapalooza Gathers the Best CrossFitters for Annual Miami Festival". Morning Chalk Up.
  19. ^ Zirkenbach, Alec (February 18, 2020). "Wodapalooza Leads the Way for Inclusive Competitions". Morning Chalk Up.
  20. ^ Varner, Anders (February 20, 2019). "Guido Trinidad: Creating Wodapalooza And Building A World Class Gym With Only $3,000 — Barbell Shrugged #378". Shrugged Collective (Podcast). Event occurs at 1:12:40–1:21:40.
  21. ^ Carson, Audrey. "CrossFit HQ confirms Wodapalooza as the 7th Sanctioned event". Boxlife Magazine.
  22. ^ Marquez, Tommy (January 8, 2019). "How to Watch the Wodapalooza CrossFit Festival". Morning Chalk Up.
  23. ^ Gutman, Andrew (January 14, 2021). "Wodapalooza 2021 Canceled, Will Be Back In 2022". BarBend.
  24. ^ Dipasquale, Mike (January 16, 2022). "Wodapalooza CrossFit Festival returns to Miami following COVID pause". 7 News Miami.
  25. ^ Pyfferoen, Brian (January 18, 2016). "And your 2016 Wodapalooza Champion is…". The Barbell Spin.
  26. ^ Hammer, Arman (January 16, 2017). "Noah Ohslen and Camille Leblanc Bazinet Win WZA 2017". FloElite.
  27. ^ Pyfferoen, Brian (January 15, 2018). "Davidsdottir, Hoerner Win 2018 Wodapalooza". The Barbell Spin.
  28. ^ Jaime, Jessie (January 14, 2018). "2018 Wodapalooza Final Results". Barbell Central blog.
  29. ^ Atkin, Nicholas (January 21, 2019). "Wodapalooza leaderboard, results: Tia-Clair Toomey, Patrick Vellner qualify for 2019 CrossFit Games". South China Morning Post.
  30. ^ Hudson, Robbie Wild (January 21, 2019). "Team Romwod/WIT Beat Rich Froning and CrossFit Mayhem at WODAPALOOZA". Box Rox.
  31. ^ Clark, Patrick (February 23, 2020). "Vellner and Toomey Repeat as Wodapalooza Champions, Mayhem Freedom Wins Team Title". Morning Chalk Up.
  32. ^ Agnew, Mark. "Wodapalooza Miami CrossFit competition won by Patrick Vellner and Emma McQuaid despite storm disruption". South China Morning Post.

External links[]

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