That’s quite a nice title to have, right?

Mat Fraser is the three-time defending CrossFit Games champion, having become the sport’s poster boy after four-time world champ Rich Froning decided to hang up his boots.

In 2014, the final year Froning competed, Fraser finished runner-up, and everyone reckoned he was a sure bet to totally dominate the competition going forward.

That didn’t quite pan out, with CNN below charting his slow and steady rise to the top:

The following year, Fraser entered the event as the favorite but once again finished second, this time to Ben Smith.

Two silver medals, but each eliciting an entirely different reaction. While his silver medal in 2014 was met with a sense of achievement, his second silver changed everything.

“I hated my 2015 medal. To me it just represented the cut corners, the slacking off, the thinking I could out-train a bad diet,” Fraser continued, “If I had won in 2015 while carrying those bad habits, I would’ve kept those bad habits. I would’ve thought I could do this while eating terribly. I can do this while training sporadically.”

Instead, the future Fittest Man on Earth changed his entire routine.

He altered the way he trained and became more focused and disciplined in the process. Fraser also changed his diet. Or more accurately, he outsourced his entire caloric intake to his girlfriend, and now fiancee, Sammy Moniz, who documents their meals on her Instagram account ‘Feeding the Frasers.’

Who wants to feel terrible about their diet? Well, let’s have a gander at the ‘Feeding the Frasers’ account, which currently has 230 000 followers:

Alright, not bad.

Two observations – at least she isn’t wearing Crocs, and I don’t see many carbs on those plates.

2015’s silver medal really did kickstart an incredible period of domination:

All these lifestyle changes worked, perhaps even better than he had imagined. Since that life-changing loss at the 2015 Games, Fraser has not lost a single competition at any level. Claiming three consecutive Gold medals at the CrossFit Games, each year by a greater margin of victory than the last.

But now Fraser faces a different problem. He has become so dominant in the sport, that fans of the sport no longer give him credit for his victories, suggesting instead that all he has to do to win is simply show up.

But Fraser believes they’re not seeing the whole picture. “I was getting those comments all the time, like: ‘What are you worried about?'” Fraser explains. “I’m dedicating everything I have for the months prior and there’s a real possibility that things won’t go right.”

“They don’t see the behind the scenes of how much goes into it. How dedicated my day to day is. That my life revolves around it. Eating, sleeping, training, social life. Everything.”

Don’t you hate it when you’re so good at something that nobody gives you any credit for it any longer? Sheesh, Mat, that’s a tough gig.

This year’s CrossFit Games start on Thursday, August 1, with Fraser the overwhelming favourite to take home his fourth successive title.

That will draw him level with Froning and, if his place amongst the pantheon of CrossFit greats wasn’t already secured, ensure that he’ll be remembered for generations to come.

I’m not a CrossFit junkie (quite the opposite actually), but if you want some insight into the dedication it takes to rise to the top, this doccie on Rich Froning will fill in some of the gaps:

[source:cnn]