Simply the BEST

With four consecutive CrossFit Games titles under his belt, many consider Mat Fraser to be the fittest man on Earth. An elite powerlifter with the body control of a gymnast and the lung capacity of a track athlete, he is one Games win away from being the most dominant performer in the history of his sport.

And yet, it’s arguably his mind, not his body, that sets him apart: relentlessly positive and uniquely unflappable, there’s the sense that if anyone’s going to catch him it will be on his terms – when he eventually calls it a day – not theirs.

When MF spoke to Fraser in early May, he was lying low in his hometown of Cookeville, Tennessee, during the coronavirus lockdown. A few weeks before our chat, The Fittest, the film of the 2019 CrossFit Games – the climax of the season and the pinnacle of the sport – was released.

It was in these Games that Fraser matched Rich Froning’s once “unreachable” record of four straight titles, pulling off a dramatic final-day comeback to cement his legend and give the filmmakers the perfect ending.

Men’s Fitness: How did you get into CrossFit?

“My background is very similar to a lot of CrossFitters, in that I started off in weightlifting. When that stopped [at 19, he broke his back during a lift and spent a year out], I missed