2023 Road To The Invitational

“I want the average, casual viewer to think of Strongman and picture me.”

After missing the 2022 Rogue Invitational due to injury, Evan “T-Rex” Singleton has come back on a mission in 2023. Starting with a career-best 5th place finish at the World’s Strongest Man earlier this year, the Lancaster, PA native comes into Austin as a serious dark horse contender against an elite field that includes Mitchell Hooper, the Stoltman brothers, Mateusz Kieliszkowski, and defending champ Oleksii Novikov.

“My mindset during my prep is that I’m going into this competition to win,” Singleton says. As a former pro-wrestler, he has all the attitude and competitive drive to back up that statement, but he also has the craft and attention to detail of a seasoned Strongman. As he showed us, his training ahead of the ‘23 Invitational has included an obsessive, meticulous focus on each event that awaits him at Dell Diamond; even the ones that are impossible to fully re-create in a gym (i.e. the Rogue-A-Coaster and Tower of Power).

“Winning the Rogue Invitational would mean everything to me,” Evan says. “I am coming in the most complete and hungriest that I have ever been in my life.”

 

For Arielle Loewen, a lot has changed since her 10th place finish at the 2022 Rogue Invitational in Austin, and it’s giving her a new confidence heading into the 2023 event. “After the Invitational last year, I saw there were huge holes,” she says, “so I sat down and I made a list of things I want to work on . . . my training environment, how I train, the style of workouts I was doing, the style of strength I was doing.”

After a career-best third place finish at the CrossFit Games this summer, it was clear that the changes had paid off. Not only was Loewen the 3rd Fittest Woman on Earth; she also became the Fittest American Woman and the Fittest Mom.

Unlike a lot of her peers, Arielle didn’t look to improve by training alongside other elite CrossFitters. Instead, she took more of a back-to-basics approach, training mostly in her home gym, without a coach, and setting her own direction each day. “I don’t have anyone there screaming at me, saying, ‘go faster, you have to do more!’” she explains. “It’s all internal. And when I step on the floor to compete, guess what? It’s all internal.”

Now, Loewen has her eyes squarely on the ‘23 Rogue Invitational, which she calls “the most intimidating competition I do all year. They will throw in heavier stuff and odd-object stuff, so I’m training for more explosiveness and really honing in on getting stronger.”

 

Victor Hoffer may not be widely known yet outside his native France, but among his fellow competitors at the 2023 Rogue Invitational, he’s been on the radar for a while. The young gymnast-turned-CrossFitter raised eyebrows during the European semi-finals in June and was part of the six-person Demo Team at the CrossFit Games in Madison. Now, after breaking through as a qualifier, he’s ready to compete with the world’s best in Austin, Texas, this fall.

To see the full list of Strongman and CrossFit competitors at the 2023 Rogue Invitational, as well as information on tickets, the venue, events, and more, check out the official page here.