It’s February, so that means it’s team announcement season. Today the 2024 edition of CrossFit Walleye was announced, and includes athletes Jamie Simmonds, Mia Hesketh, Elliot Simmonds and Kristóf Horváth.
While this quartet is new to the CrossFit Games season, these four athletes placed 2nd together at the 2022 Madrid Championship team competition.
Jamie Simmonds
Jamie Simmonds is the most decorated athlete on the team with 5 individual CrossFit Games appearances and 1 previous team appearance. In her five solo trips to the Games, Simmonds has a career best finish of 3rd in 2019, and another top 10 finish of 8th place in her rookie year, 2017. In fact, all of her CrossFit Games appearances resulted in impressive top 20 finishes, including in 2023, where she unfortunately had to withdraw due to an elbow injury.
Jamie Simmonds’ team appearance came back in 2016, where as part of CrossFit Yas, she finished 3rd.
Also in 2016, Jamie Simmonds won the CrossFit Open.
Jamie Simmonds struggled to return to the Games in the first couple years of the Semifinals era, as a shoulder injury in 2021 forced a long rehab process.
Mia Hesketh
Mia Hesketh returns to the team competition in 2024, after being part of the 2023 CrossFit Walleye team, which took 6th place at the CrossFit Games. 2023 was Hesketh’s 3rd trip to the Games on a team. In 2019 she was a member of the 8th place team, CrossFit Alioth, and in 2015 she was a member of CrossFit Fabriken, who finished 9th.
During the 2023 – 2024 offseason, Hesketh had an impressive 6th place finish at the Dubai Fitness Championship, and just missed out on qualifying for the Rogue Invitational with a 10th place finish in The “Q”.
Mia Hesketh did qualify for the CrossFit Games in 2020, thanks to her 2nd place finish at the Australian CrossFit Championship, but declined that invitation.
Elliot Simmonds
Elliot Simmonds is a 3 time CrossFit Games athlete. In 2016, Elliot Simmonds was also a part of the CrossFit Yas team that finished 3rd at the CrossFit Games. He has appeared twice as an individual at the Games, first in 2018 where he finished 26th, and in 2019 with a 19th place finish.
Last fall, Elliot Simmonds shared a series of posts documenting his long battle back from injury, and in December was able to return to the competition floor at the Dubai Fitness Championship where he finished 22nd.
Kristóf Horváth
Kristóf Horváth rounds out the team as the only member to have not made a trip to the CrossFit Games as an athlete. Horváth however does bring a long competition history at an elite level.
During the Sanctional era of the sport, Horváth had top 10 finishes at the 2019 Strength in Depth (8th), Asia CrossFit Championship (4th) and Reykjavik CrossFit Championship (10th).
Kristóf Horváth’s only Semifinal appearance resulted in a 9th at the 2022 Strength in Depth, placing him one spot out of qualifying for the Last Chance Qualifier.
Horváth, along with Hesketh, brings a strength element to the team. At 2022 Strength in Depth he earned an event win in the Semifinals Barbell Complex, and in The “Q” this past fall, he won the 3 rep max Overhead Squat event with a lift of 330 pounds.
