Who is the fittest person on the planet?

Who is the fittest person on the planet?

In a week when the extremely likable Amy Hunt stole the sporting headlines by winning an historic 4 gold medals at the European Athletics Championships, securing first-place finishes in the individual 100m, 200m, 4 x 100m women’s relay and the 4 x 100m mixed relay – there was another Aimee going totally under the radar.

A few days ago, I saw on the BBC Sport website that 27-year-old Aimee Cringle from the Isle of Man, just became the 2026 CrossFit Games champion – crowning her the “Fittest Woman on Earth”.

The Fittest Woman on Earth - This unofficial CrossFit title stands as a bone of contention for many sports.

Squash professionals certainly take offence to this, as I’m sure many sports stars would. For as long as I can remember the crème de la crème from squash, tennis, boxing, rowing and Tour de France would consider themselves among the fittest humans – so for a new(ish) sport to come along and claim the title, certainly makes others feel somewhat prickly toward CrossFit.

(Sidenote: Is CrossFit even a sport, or is it just a training discipline? Perhaps this is a debate for another day!)

I’d never even heard of CrossFit until about 10 years ago, and that was because my brother-in-law had taken up this new training regime in Singapore. I palmed it off as an ex-pat fad which quickly became known on Instagram and Twitter, with funny memes about “CrossFit W@nkers”. CrossFit goers in the early days were depicted as so obsessive, it would take over their everyday life: holding the squat position to tie your shoelace; lunging up and down the corridor to rock your newborn baby to sleep; curling your shopping bags to show off your bicep; handstand walking down your driveway to your car, etc – you get the idea. Classic CroffFit W@anker behaviour.

(I must also say that squash is the most obsessive sport I’ve ever known. Most club players I’ve coached over the last 20 years think about squash non-stop. They’ll practice their backhand with a frying pan in the kitchen, they’ll spend their evenings watching coaching videos on YouTube, they’ll go to the squash club for a solo practice when they should be at home with their wife celebrating their 20^th wedding anniversary, and they’ll phone me at midnight on a Thursday night to discuss their latest league match! So, I certainly empathise with CrossFit addicts)

At this same time, squash fanatics were hearing rumours that the up-and-coming sensation from New Zealand who was taking fitness and strength in squash to a whole new level, was in-fact doing so using a CrossFit gym programme alongside his on-court work. Before this, squash training had always consisted of long, tiring court sprint sessions, bike work, pounding the treadmill, ghosting, some weights, alongside hours and hours spent on court; being fed by your coach, practice routines with a similar level partner, and many, many, many practice matches.

So, if it’s good enough for kiwi squasher Paul Coll, maybe CrossFit might not be an ex-pat fad after all, but a legitimate training discipline.

Over the last decade I have of course come to learn more about CrossFit and its massive benefits - and for the last 2 or 3 years I’ve been aware the winner of their flagship event was unofficially crowned and regarded as the fittest person on the planet.

But… imagine my shock just now when I discovered the 2026 championships was its 20^th anniversary! Apparently, it’s been a serious sport for much longer than I realised.

For this anniversary year, the 2026 Games consisted of 20 events / stages to be completed over 4 days of intense competition, to determine the overall winner.

I have just watched all 20 events from the 2026 CrossFit Games. Wowzers.

After watching each event involved in these championships – I am won over.

It is absolutely brutal. These men and women are machines. 20 different events. Each as brutal as the next. Each totally incomprehensible for a normal person to complete. Four events per day (some evens starting minutes after the last has finished). You need to see it to believe it.

However – CrossFit lacks a lot of aspects which make certain sports, like tennis and squash, the toughest sports in the world. Lightning-fast reactions; complex thought processes happening in a matter of split-second moments; skill levels and hand dexterity which take years upon years to master; intricate and graceful movement patterns; skill and tactical nuances which only the elite minds can comprehend – all these aspects coupled with an almost inhuman combination of endurance, speed, power and flexibility. The intimate combat of most sports separates them from CrossFit. Standing face-to-face with an opponent who is going to contact you, distract you, tackle you, punch you (!) is possibly what defines ‘sport’.

I truly believe athletes like squashers Paul Coll, Joel Makin, Hania El Hammy; tennis supremos like Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, Iga Świątek; and badminton star Viktor Axelsen, are possibly fitter that the leading CrossFit professionals. The beauty of racket sports compared to CrossFit – there isn’t one body type which is best, or one training method. I love to compare Roger Federer to Rafael Nadal. Both trained very differently. Developed different styles. Developed different physiques. Chose to adopt different playing styles and tactics. Yet, both became two of the greatest players of all time (along with Novak). There is no one path to excel at a sport.

But – I don’t think CrossFit is claiming to be the hardest ‘sport’ in the world: it’s claiming their champion athletes are the ‘fittest’ people in the world.

So, this leads me to - what defines ‘fitness’?

When you watch the annual CrossFit Games World Championships, you can’t argue that these people are likely to be the most impressive physical specimens on the planet. They are phenomenal all-rounders (perhaps leaning more toward strength than endurance, but they are the whole package).

I genuinely believe fitness is more multi-faceted than the obvious physical markers. A component should include ‘in the moment’ mental fitness. This requires a more ‘open’ activity with an opponent. Performing when being continuously tactically aware, reacting and adjusting to your opponent’s shots, their movements and the ever-changing score-line, this drains energy levels more than people can imagine, and requires training.

Skill level and technique is a factor of fitness. This element involves hours upon hours of training discipline and can help stave off stamina fatigue. Training to achieve economical movement to allow court coverage for hours on end, this is a vital ingredient of the fitness recipe. Federer didn’t look like Nadal, but this didn’t mean he was less fit. His superior, graceful movement didn’t just come naturally, it came from hours of daily work.

To conclude, for me as an ex-professional squash player and someone who has coached many top professionals including a world champion, and a world number 1, and as someone who loves every nuance of elite level sports, I would place higher value to the title of being the world No.1 squash, tennis or badminton player, instead of being crowned CrossFit’s Fittest Man in The World. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to be known as the fittest man in the world, especially as I had a hip replacement 2 ½ years ago and I’m now a far cry from the athlete I once was 25 years ago!

One more thing to say – from my research and experience, I feel the depth of extreme fitness athletes is probably higher in CrossFit than squash. The world no.100 in CrossFit I would consider having better all-round fitness than the world no.100 squash player. I feel the absolute elite squash players reach their heights because they train harder than those below them. I believe top squash players train harder than anyone in any sport, but I would wager the 100^th ranked CrossFit athlete trains harder than the equivalent squash professional.

As a fellow racket sport enthusiast, I’d truly love to hear your thoughts…