One of CrossFit’s most iconic athletes has just joined forces with nine-time champion Rich Froning, joining a host of others at Mayhem Athlete as well as a new exclusive collaboration between Saunders’ ACTIV Eyewear and Froning. Saunders announced the transition from Brute Strength on Wednesday during a special Instagram Live session with Froning.
At this point, Mayhem will very likely field the largest number of individual athletes at the 2022 Games, and possibly even across all divisions. Saunders is now the sixth individual athlete to join Mayhem since the 2021 CrossFit Games and the biggest name outside of Froning, but the total is now at least 15, not including the 43 athletes they fielded in 2021 across all divisions.
“After this year’s Games that I missed I did some reflecting and decided I needed to make some changes to really enjoy my time as an athlete and not lose any mental and emotional energy that could be going towards my family,” Saunders added via email. “My previous coach Nick Fowler was honestly the best and such an amazing human in general. He took such good care of me, but I actually just felt like I didn’t want to have a coach anymore and wanted to just do CrossFit and have so much fun getting better.”
Saunders will head to the United States earlier than normal in 2022 so that she and her family can get settled in. She will head to Cookeville and train with Froning and the rest of the Mayhem Athlete family.
Another important part of the conversation revolved around a new collaboration between Froning and Saunders’ eyewear brand, ACTIV. The nine-time champion now has his own signature pair of shades, which feature the Froning “R” logo, as well as Galatians 6:14, the Bible verse tattooed on his ribs.
Saunders has been training hard in Australia to prepare for the 2022 season, and she will have support from one of the sport’s most accomplished figures and his top-tier staff. Now she will draw even more attention as she prepares for the 2022 CrossFit Games.
Information provided by Morning Chalk Up; Majority Written by John Newby; Photo Credit: ACTIV Eyewear