Paige Rodgers, Victor Hoffer win Mayhem Classic, book 2026 CrossFit Games berths

Paige Rodgers and Victor Hoffer put themselves into the 2026 CrossFit Games field the hard way in Cookeville, Tennessee, winning the Mayhem Classic and locking down two of the weekend’s three qualification spots in each division. Rodgers finished with 530 points, enough to edge Emma Lawson and Lucy Campbell in a women’s race that stayed tight to the end. Hoffer finished tied with Roman Khrennikov on points, then won the men’s title on tiebreak positioning, with Jeff Adler close enough behind to keep the final leaderboard meaningful until the last scores landed.

That mattered because the Mayhem Classic was the first in-person Semifinal on the 2026 CrossFit Semifinals schedule, and the setup was simple: 20 men and 20 women came in, but only the top three in each division moved on. In other words, every rep, run, and tie-breaker had Games consequences. The 2026 CrossFit Games are set for July 24-26 at the SAP Center in San Jose, California, so Cookeville effectively opened the real qualification race for the summer.

Rodgers’ result fit the profile of a veteran who knows how to survive a demanding weekend. Her CrossFit profile already showed a sixth-place finish at the 2023 North America East Semifinal and a 10th-place finish at the 2023 Games, and she backed that record with the steadiness needed across six events. Hoffer arrived with similar credentials, including a sixth-place finish at the 2024 Europe Semifinal and a 38th-place finish at the 2024 Games, then used that experience to outlast a field that never gave him much room.

The weekend was not won on one specialty. Mayhem’s six tests ran from a five-kilometer run with burpee log get-overs to a clean-and-jerk benchmark, from The Dirty 30s with sandbags and gymnastics to a midline-heavy ski and toes-to-bar workout, then a rope-climb and front-squat piece before a final dumbbell and double-under sprint. Jeff Adler and Haley Adams won Event 1, Calum Clements and Abigail Domit took Event 2, Colten Mertens and Lucy Campbell won Event 3, Roman Khrennikov and Claudia Gluck won Event 4, Victor Hoffer and Paige Rodgers won Event 5, and Jeff Adler and Lucy Campbell closed with Event 6.

The final picture was bigger than one weekend podium. Rodgers, Hoffer, Lawson, Campbell, Khrennikov, and Adler all emerged with Games spots from a field built to punish mistakes, and Mayhem paid out a reported $59,000 purse while setting the early standard for the season. With the in-person Semifinals now underway and the Individual Online Semifinals still coming in June, Cookeville gave the rest of the field a clear warning: the athletes who can stay clean across strength, gymnastics, and engine tests are already separating themselves.