Kyra Milligan, number 61 and a utility player for the SWFL Sharks, on her 2026 Grid League player card.

Player News · 2026 Season

Kyra Milligan Debuts for the Sharks in New York

Kyra Milligan stood up a 370-pound back squat at the CrossFit Games in San Jose in late July and beat every woman in the field. Two weeks later she plays her first Grid League match for the defending champions, in New Jersey just outside New York City.

Milligan is based in Nashville and trains at CrossFit PRVN. She signed with the Southwest Florida Sharks for the 2026 season and has not stepped onto the Grid yet. That ends Saturday, August 8, at American Dream in East Rutherford, when the Sharks face the Fort Lauderdale Lions at 3:15 p.m.

What She Brings

Milligan finished 15th at the 2026 CrossFit Games with 815 points. The squat was the third event, and she stayed near the top of the barbell work all week, going sixth on the shoulder press at 145 and sixth on the deadlift at 385. Before the Games she won the 2026 CrossFit Quarterfinals outright, first among all the women.

Kyra Milligan of the SWFL Sharks mid lift with a pair of heavy dumbbells. — Milligan joins the Sharks as a utility player.

She is listed as a utility player, which makes her immediately one of the strongest utility players in the league. Most coaches trade some strength to get a player they can drop anywhere in the lineup.

The Sharks are not making that trade. Top-end strength plus that kind of versatility is a real advantage.

Saturday Is the Rematch

The Sharks won the 2025 championship by beating the Lions, after knocking out the Tampa Bay Brigade 18-16 in the playoffs to get there. Saturday afternoon the two of them line up again, on parallel lanes of the Grid, racing head-to-head through a series of races that each put points on the board.

The SWFL Sharks squad and staff together under the league scoreboard at the Grid League match day in Lakeland. — The Sharks carry the 2025 championship into the New York weekend.

Both teams sit first in their conference right now, and they got there differently. The Sharks are 2-0 and lead the West. The Lions are 1-1 and lead the East anyway, on the season rank total that settles seeding. Lower is better. The Lions are at 31, the best figure in the league, ahead of the Sharks at 38 and well clear of the 2-0 Houston Bandits at 48. The Lions have lost key races while racing on average faster than everybody else.

New York closes out the Sharks’ regular season. The schedule runs only four events in 2026, and the playoff field widened to six teams, three from each conference, so whatever the Sharks leave on the floor at American Dream is what they take into the playoffs. Two matches, and then they wait.

Sunday at 10:30 a.m. they take on the Brigade to finish the weekend.

Six Matches, Two Days

This is the league’s first event in the Northeast and the New York Wolves’ first home match. Six matches run across Saturday and Sunday at American Dream in the Meadowlands. ESPN’s The Ocho is featuring the league August 6 through 9.

Milligan has competed in front of a CrossFit Games crowd twice. She has never competed with a bunch of teammates behind her.