Empower Open 2026 – Week 2 Recap
Momentum builds, limits get shattered, and the leaderboard tightens.
Week 2 of the Empower Open is officially complete, and the team dynamics shifted in some interesting ways.
Just like in Week 1, all three teams — The Rising Force, The Power Surge and The Unbreakables — kept the Empower Open Slack channel buzzing, each posting at least 10 photos to capture the sweat, smiles and superhero spirit. That effort earned every team another 10 bonus points for the week.
Full Team Effort
Two teams saw all nine of their members complete 26.2 this week — The Rising Force and The Unbreakables — earning them the coveted full-team completion bonus.
This also means that The Rising Force is now the only team to have had all nine members complete both 26.1 and 26.2 within the official time window (before 5pm Monday). That’s consistency.
Judging Champions Continue to Lead
While they didn’t quite achieve a full team finish this week, The Power Surge continued to dominate the judging front.
They judged a total of 11 athletes, compared to 8 judged by The Rising Force and 4 judged by The Unbreakables.
Two athletes in particular stood out in the judging department. According to our very official record-keeping system (score sheets, Slack posts, and one piece of paper from Saturday that may or may not be covered in my chicken scratch):
Dauntless judged an impressive four athletes
Motor claimed the title of “Judgiest Empower Hero”, judging a staggering five athletes
That kind of support is what keeps the Open running.
Superhero Style Points
Athletes once again showed up proudly representing their team colours, superhero capes flying.
But the award for Most Committed to the Costume this week goes to The Ghost, who completed most of the workout wearing both a cape and a bright blue wig.
Dedication. Style. Questionable aerodynamics.
The Workout: A Classic Open Test
As Smash noted in his weekly hot tips, 26.2 followed a classic CrossFit Open pattern:
“A triplet of movements with three distinct rounds where one movement gets increasingly harder. You’ll see that we go from pull-ups to chest-to-bars and finally to ring muscle-ups.”
As Smash went on to note, for many athletes, one of those pulling movements becomes the limiting factor.
But this is where the magic of the Open happens.
Every year athletes surprise themselves — pushing past perceived limits and achieving something they never thought possible.
And Week 2 delivered exactly that.
Breakthrough Moments
On Friday morning, Sable accomplished her first ever chest-to-bar pull-up — and then went ahead and knocked out all 20 reps, just to prove it wasn’t a fluke.
Possibly inspired by Sable’s feat, Viper showed up Sunday morning and did the same — hitting her first ever chest-to-bars.
Meanwhile, Gift (not an official Empower Superhero but an Open participant nonetheless) wandered into Saturday’s workout convinced that jumping pull-ups were not in her wheelhouse.
By the time she finished — thanks to the watchful eye and thoughtful coaching of WOD Father — she had banged out a whole bunch.
That’s the Open effect.
Week 2 Results
The leaderboard tightened this week.
After their dominant Week 1 performance, The Power Surge slipped slightly, while The Rising Force stayed true to their name — steadily climbing and finishing the week in a tie for first.
Week 2 Standings
The Power Surge - 53
The Rising Force - 53
The Unbreakables - 41
Overall Leaderboard
With two weeks down, the cumulative standings look like this:
The Power Surge - 116
The Rising Force - 101
The Unbreakables - 78
There’s still plenty left to play for.
One Week to Go
The third and final week of the Empower Open is just around the corner, and if the first two weeks are any indication, we’re in for something special.
To everyone who showed up to compete, judge, cheer, and support — thank you.
You really are my heroes.
Let’s see what Week 3 brings.
