Opinion | CrossFit Games 2020: Jeffrey Adler an emerging star as methodical approach starts to pay off

The quiet Canadian has shown that building a solid foundation in the sport can lead all the way to the top

The 26-year-old moves into second place behind champion Mat Fraser after the second day of the 2020 CrossFit Games

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Jeffrey Adler is showing slow and steady can work in CrossFit. Photo: CrossFit Games

Published: 10:22am, 25 Oct 2020Updated: 11:16am, 25 Oct 2020

In three-day competitions it’s typically the middle day that brings the most drama. With the new structure of this year’s CrossFit Games, that moving day feeling was even greater, but for no one was it more crucial than Jeffrey Adler.

Canada’s national champion hasn’t been a staple at the top of CrossFit by any means. While compatriots Patrick Vellner and Brent Fikowksi were putting the men on the map with regular top five and podium finishes at the Games in 2016-2018, Adler was slowly building a foundation that is needed to move up in the sport.

Having spent some time with Adler and his girlfriend Caroline Lambray, who is also his coach, I learned a lot about what it takes to be an elite athlete, and was surprised to find the baseline of their training is dot-com programming.

The emphasis has been on doing it the right way: no short cuts, no easy way out. In competition, it’s often the repetitive attention to detail that shines through in the way of solid performances.

Entering day two Adler sat in fourth place out of the five athletes with 220 points; a mere five points up on Samuel Kwant and only 15 points behind third place Noah Ohlsen. In fact, only 40 points separated Justin Medeiros in second from Kwant in fifth. As we expected, there was a lot worth fighting for among the men not named Mat Fraser.

Jeffrey Adler is building an impressive CrossFit foundation for years to come. Photo: CrossFit Games

Adler’s day got off to the worst possible start with a last-place finish in the lunge and toe-to-bar event, but he was not deterred. Adler suggested that it doesn’t matter who it is, but someone needs to beat Fraser in an event, and Adler was determined to go for it.