Weirdest challenge 2022: everything you need to know

What do you get when you mix together two days of fitness competition, top athletes from eight European countries, the fittest five-man man in the world and an Olympic arena full of fans in a nightclub-like atmosphere of Barcelona?

You get the 7th edition of the Freakest Challenge, one of the most unique competitions in the CrossFit space kicking off this weekend. This year, the event has expanded and renamed Fittest Challenge Weekendand now features two separate competitions on Saturday July 9 and Sunday July 10, each with a unique format as athletes compete for €25,000 in prize money.

• Both competitions will take place at the Palau Olímpic in Badalona, which in the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics hosted basketball competition and the famous United States basketball team nicknamed the “Dream Team”.
• The challenge is a four-person team competition open to teams across Europe which in previous iterations has been the centerpiece of the Freakest Challenge and will take place on Saturday. Similar to past years it will feature eight teams competing in an elimination-style format until one team is crowned champion.

Just in case you need a reminder about the event, in 2020, the Morning Chalk Up was on the ground at the event and had the chance to document our experience as well as some of the behind-the-scenes action with the athletes.

New to this year’s event is the Cup, a competition featuring male/female pairings from Europe’s eight fittest countries competing in the same elimination-style format as The Challenge to ultimately crown one country as ‘European Champion’.

• Using season results from the CrossFit Games, eight countries from Europe have been selected to compete with one man and one woman each selected to represent their nation in the event.
• Denmark, Spain, France, Portugal, Ireland, Switzerland, Italy and Finland will be the countries represented and the athlete list includes individual Games athletes Sam Stewart, Casper Gammelmark and Julie Hougard.

Each year, some of the biggest names in sport come as guests to support the competition and their involvement ranges from coaching each team to determining elimination brackets and even starting the DJ turntables.

• This year, Mat Fraser, Gabi Migala and Amy Bremen title of the list of invited athletes which in the past has also included Laura Horvath, Sara Sigmundsdottir, Thuri Helgadottir, Lukas Hogberg, Willy Georges and Lauren Fisher.

How to watch: Fans interested in watching the event live will be able to tune in via the free live stream which will be hosted on the Morning Chalk Up YouTube Channel and will feature commentary from longtime CrossFit Games commentators Chase Ingraham and Bill Grundler of Get With The Programming Podcast.

• The Challenge, Saturday event times: 4:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. GMT+2 (local Barcelona time), with doors opening to spectators at 2:30 p.m. GMT+2.
• The Cup, Sunday event times: 11:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. GMT+2 (local Barcelona time), with doors opening to spectators at 9:30 GMT+2.

If you are interested in making the trip to Spain, attendee information, including venue location, ticket purchases and travel recommendations, can be found on the event’s attendee information page here.