Ben Smith crushes 2026 Online Semifinals workout before window opens

Ben Smith lit up Workout 4 before the 2026 Individual Online Semifinals window opened, then posted the effort to YouTube. He covered the test in 4:43, with Creed blasting in the gym, and the clip landed the way a lot of Smith performances still do, as a reminder that CrossFit’s old standard for grit and polish can still look extremely relevant.

The workout was a sharp, unforgiving sprint: for time, 5-4-3-2-1 snatches at 225 pounds for men and 155 for women, with five 50-foot shuttle runs after each set. CrossFit required athletes to face the camera during the snatches, work from a 25-foot setup for the shuttle runs, and finish inside a 10-minute cap, with tiebreaks taken after each round. A 4:43 finish says plenty. This was not about hanging on at the end. It was about barbell speed, clean cycling, and the ability to recover fast enough between efforts to keep the whole piece moving.

That time also carried an asterisk by design. The individual competition window for the Online Semifinals ran Thursday, June 11 through Monday, June 15, at 12 p.m. PT, and athletes could not submit scores until registration was complete. Smith had not registered as of Wednesday morning, so the video functioned more like a statement of readiness than a leaderboard result. CrossFit said the top 2,000 men and top 2,000 women from Quarterfinals were eligible for the Online Semifinals, and the final seven men and seven women will move on to the 2026 CrossFit Games.

That is why Smith still pulls weight in this sport. He won the 2015 CrossFit Games, has reached the Games every year since 2009, and has stood on the podium four times. CrossFit’s athlete page also lists him as the owner of CrossFit Krypton in Chesapeake, Virginia. In a field that often feels smoother, cleaner, and more packaged than it used to, Smith still represents a version of CrossFit identity that fans recognize instantly: heavy lifts, no fuss, and enough toughness to make a 4:43 feel bigger than the number itself.