There’s a moment every elite OCR athlete can point to — the race where something clicked. Where they stopped surviving the course and started racing it. These five men know that moment well. They came up through open waves, local events, and regional qualifiers. Now they’re names you’ll be watching at every major start line in 2026.
1. Ryan “Rail” Kowalski
If you spent any time at Spartan Northeast events in 2023 and 2024, you probably remember a lanky guy in a faded orange shirt absolutely flying through the rig section while everyone else was dropping. That was Ryan Kowalski — and he hasn’t slowed down since.
Now competing full-time in the elite wave, Kowalski is built around one elite-level skill: grip strength. He trains the rig like it’s a separate sport, logging pull-up volume that would humble most CrossFit athletes, and he’s complemented that with genuine trail running speed over the past 18 months. The combo is devastating. He rarely loses time on obstacles and rarely gets caught on climbs.
His 2026 season opener was a statement: a top-five finish at the Spartan North American Championship in February, hanging with athletes who’ve held elite cards for years. Watch for him at any technical, rig-heavy course — he’s almost unbeatable when the obstacles demand hands.
2. Marcus Delgado
Marcus Delgado came to OCR from a triathlon background, and it shows — in the best possible way. He runs economically, transitions fast, and never seems to blow up. What took him time to develop was the upper-body strength to make it through elite-level obstacles without burning a penalty lap.
That development appears complete. Delgado spent the 2024 off-season training almost exclusively on obstacles, working with a gymnastics coach on body positioning and a strength coach on pulling mechanics. The results have been immediate: he went from a mid-pack elite finisher to consistently cracking the top ten, with a podium finish at the Battlefrog Classic Revival in March.
He’s also one of the more analytically minded athletes on the circuit, known for pre-walking courses the morning of race day and adjusting his fueling plan based on obstacle placement. He treats OCR like the multivariate sport it actually is — and it’s paying dividends.
3. Tanner Okafor
Tanner Okafor’s story is one of the more compelling on the circuit. A former collegiate wrestler who discovered OCR through a charity mud run in 2021, he was hooked immediately — not because it was easy, but because it was impossible the first time. He finished last in his wave and signed up for the next race before he’d even cleaned up.
That competitive stubbornness is still his defining trait. Okafor doesn’t run the smartest race or pace the most elegantly, but he refuses to yield — on the course or in the penalty loop. His obstacle completion rate sits at well above 90% across his elite career, an absurd number that reflects his wrestling-built grip and the sheer refusal to let go of anything.
He’s currently ranked in the top 20 of the OCR World Championship points standings, and with the OCRWC qualification window open, he’s pointed at a podium run in the fall. Athletes who’ve trained alongside him describe his mindset simply: he makes everything feel personal.
4. Finn Johansson
The Swedish-born Finn Johansson relocated to Colorado two years ago specifically to train at altitude and access the trail running culture of the American mountain west. It was a calculated move — and calculated moves are very much Johansson’s style.
A former 800m runner with a decade of competitive track behind him, Johansson has exceptional aerobic capacity and running economy. He can hold a pace that slowly dismantles the field and recover between obstacles faster than almost anyone on the circuit. His weakness, historically, has been the high-load grip obstacles. His strength work has been dedicated to closing that gap, and at this year’s Rocky Mountain OCR Series, he swept the series title across three events.
Johansson is the kind of athlete who peaks perfectly — his training blocks are meticulous, he never looks burned out, and he tends to show up at major events in the shape of his life. If OCRWC falls late in the season, he’s a legitimate title contender.
5. Dre Collins
Dre Collins might be the most naturally gifted athlete on this list — which makes it all the more remarkable that he almost quit the sport entirely in 2023 after a string of injuries derailed a promising rise through the elite ranks.
He didn’t quit. He rebuilt. Collins worked with a sports medicine team to address a chronic shoulder issue that had been limiting his obstacle performance, dropped his weekly mileage, and focused on quality over volume. The comeback has been real: he opened 2026 with back-to-back podium finishes and is running with a confidence that was missing in his injury years.
What sets Collins apart is his raw athleticism on technical terrain — he descends faster than almost anyone in the field and has a knack for threading through congestion without losing momentum. On a gnarly course with elevation and tight singletrack, he’s genuinely dangerous. He’s also the most watchable athlete of the five: if you’re spectating, find a hill and wait for Dre.
What They Have in Common
Five different backgrounds, five different strengths — but a few things cut across all of them. Every athlete on this list came up through the open waves and took their time before jumping elite. Every one of them treats obstacle mastery as a separate training discipline, not an afterthought. And every one of them has a story of adversity they’ve leaned into rather than away from.
OCR rewards generalists, but it rewards resilient generalists most of all. These five have that in spades. Keep their names close as the 2026 season heats up — you’ll be hearing them at start lines all summer.
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