The second major super team announcement of the 2024 CrossFit Games season happened yesterday in Australia. Mayhem Thunder is composed of 4 former individual CrossFit Games athletes, led by the 10 year games veteran Kara Saunders. Saunders is joined by fellow Australians, Khan Porter, James Newbury and Emily De Rooy.
Kara Saunders
Kara Saunders has made 10 trips to the CrossFit Games. Her career best finish happened in 2017 when she finished 2nd behind Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr by just 2 points. During her 10 appearances at the Games, Saunders earned 7 event wins, and is one of only 5 women to have 6 individual finishes at the CrossFit Games in the top 10 overall.
Kara Saunders did not compete in the 2023 season as she and her partner Matt welcomed their second child.
During the 2022 season, Kara Saunders continued to show that she is one of the top athletes in the sport with 7th place finishes in both the CrossFit Games and the Rogue Invitational.
Khan Porter
Khan Porter is a fan favourite in the sport, and has earned his way to the CrossFit Games as an individual 5 times and twice as part of a team.
As an individual, Porter’s top finish was in 2018 when he finished 24th. Despite not having a top 20 overall finish at the Games, Khan Porter was able to earn a top 5 event finish in every trip to the Games.
Porter made his first trip to the CrossFit Games as part of a team in the first iteration of “Super Teams” in 2019 as part of Project X, who finished 13th overall. In 2022, Khan Porter was a member of CrossFit Reykjavik, who earned a 4th place finish at the Games.
At the 2022 Dubai Fitness Championship, Khan Porter injured his back, and this injury caused him to withdraw from the 2023 season during Quarterfinals.
James Newbury
James Newbury is a 4 time CrossFit Games athlete, who made his first appearance in 2016. Newbury’s top finish at the CrossFit Games came in 2019 when he finished 5th, and included his memorable event win in Ringer 1.
During his career, Newbury won the Pacific Regional twice (2017 and 2018), and he also won the Australian CrossFit Championship in 2019.
In 2023, Newbury finished 9th at the Torian Pro Semifinal. He was a surprise qualifier for the event after a video failure on a Quarterfinal workout put his season in jeopardy.
Emily De Rooy
Emily De Rooy is coming off her rookie season as an individual at the CrossFit Games where she finished 40th. The up-and-coming athlete has shown steady improvement in the Oceania region. In 2021 she finished in 56th during Oceania Quarterfinals, 23rd in 2022 and a 7th place Quarterfinals finish in 2023. In Semifinals, De Rooy has earned a 7th place finish at the Torian Pro in 2022 and a 3rd place in 2023 when she earned her spot at the Games.
The 2023 – 2024 CrossFit offseason likely hasn’t gone as De Rooy had planned with a 9th place at the Down Under Championship and a 28th at Wodapalooza.
While the season is still early, and we don’t know the vast majority of teams competing, Mayhem Thunder has the pedigree to put them among favourites for the podium in Fort Worth this summer.
