You may now know the classic CrossFit Girl Benchmark “Amanda”, 9-7-5 of Muscle Ups and Squat Snatches @ 135/95 lbs, but do you know who the Amanda that it’s named after is?
The Woman
Amanda was named after the 2009 CrossFit Games competitor, Amanda Miller. In 2009, and known by her pistol tattoos on her hips, Miller moved on to the Games after finishing 6th in the Mid Atlantic Regional. She placed 55th overall that year. Unfortunately, one month later she soon crossed more challenges as she faced a battle with recurring melanoma. She passed away on April 23, 2010 at the young age of 24.
āI just competed in the CF Games less than a year ago and now Iām dying.ā
–Amanda Miller, March 9, 2010
The first WOD of the 2010 CrossFit Games was then dedicated to Miller when Dave Castro officially dubbed the workout in honor of the fallen athlete, to live on in the CrossFit Community forever.
Amanda actively wrote on her blog about her CrossFit Journey. From what she ate, what she did, and even what she went through when we began her battle with melanoma. Humble, inspiring, and warm hearted, it’s heartbreaking to know that things had to come to an end so young. She will always be missed, but she will never be forgotten.
The WOD
We have over 16,000 logged results for “Amanda” alone. From ridiculously fast games athletes times to slow-and-steady “lets just finish this” times. To score in the 99th percentile on this workout, men and women are looking to get around 3:45 and 3:56 respectively. Here’s the full percentile breakdown.
For reference, a Regional Athlete scores inside the 90-94th percentile while a Games athlete typically lands in the 95th or above. Now if you happen to be someone who hits a dominating benchmark score and get in the 98th percentile, this doesn’t necessarily mean you’re now going to be a Games level athlete.
Making it among the final tiny percent of people in the world to compete at the Games requires you to be among the best in every aspect of your fitness. It doesn’t matter that you can back squat 600 lbs if it takes you 10 minutes to run a mile or you have to do pull-ups in singles. Our Fitness Level and Analyze features on BTWB will give you a non-biased breakdown of your relative strengths and weaknesses. That way you can tailor your goals intuitively if you really are trying to make it to regionals or the games.
Top Games Athletes have some of the fastest times on our site, scoring from sub four minutes to as fast as sub three minutes. Games Athlete Camille Leblanc-Bazinet has actually even done the workout at the prescribed men’s weight of 135 lbs if you want to take a look. Once someone has a solid snatch base and acquired muscle-ups, Amanda is such a simple looking workout. But the tables painfully turn once you go after it, as is the rest of the classic CrossFit benchmarks workouts.
“Anything that left you flat on your back, looking up at the sky asking ‘What just happened to me?’ deserved a girl’s name”
-Greg Glassman
You’ll also see a plethora of other top athletes putting up some dominating scores while all of us mere mortals just want to finish the workout in a reasonable amount of time š
Amanda represents the first time a workout was named in honor of a Games athlete and gives CrossFitters around the world the opportunity to pay tribute to her. So whether you’re just hitting the workout for fun or trying to level up your Fitness Level, remember who this workout is really for. The CrossFit Community is like no other.
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