The National Kidney Registry is proud to announce the winners of the Donor Games 2024 Championship, which was held on Saturday, September 14, at Affinity Athletics in Stamford, Connecticut.
The Donor Games Championship is an annual in-person event in which elite athletes who have donated a kidney or liver or received a living donor transplant compete in a grueling series of workouts. Donor and transplant recipient athletes are invited to compete in the Championship based on their performance in a series of virtual Donor Games Open events held throughout the year.
A total of 16 donor and recipient athletes competed in the Donor Games 2024 Championship. The event included three CrossFit-based workouts: the Burn & Bench, the Pike, and the Heavy Murph.
Women’s Division Results
| Mimi Mahon | Roni Hays | Radley West |
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Mimi Mahon, who donated a kidney through the National Kidney Registry’s paired donation program in January 2017 on behalf of her mother (Nicky Mahon, who also competed in the event), captured her fourth Donor Games Championship win. Mahon, a frequent competitor and winner of Donor Games events, is the owner and head coach at Mahon Strength & Fitness in Hamilton, Ohio, which hosted the first-ever Donor Games Midwestern Regional event on July 20, 2024. Learn more about Mimi Mahon.
Roni Hays came in second overall in her fourth Championship event. Hays, who is from Franklin, Tennessee, and now lives in Brandon, Mississippi, donated her kidney to her mother in May 2019 at age 22. She began competing in Donor Games competition in 2021 and has been consistently at the top of the leaderboard ever since. Learn more about Roni Hays.
Radley West of Columbia, South Carolina won a tiebreaker for third place.
Men’s Division Results
| Mike Ramsey | Justin King | Brandon Cullen |
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Mike Ramsey traveled from his home in Schofield, Wisconsin for his first Donor Games Championship, taking first place in the men’s category. Ramsey donated his kidney to his wife, Bridget, in 2023, and began competing in Donor Games Open events in 2024.
Justin King of Huntsville, Alabama took second place overall for the second year in a row. Justin donated his kidney to a friend and fellow church member in December 2020. He began competing in Open events in 2022 and regularly appears at the top of the leaderboard. Learn more about Justin King.
Brandon Cullen of Bay Shore, New York took third place. Cullen donated a kidney in 2023 to his friend Joe Curry, who also competed in the Championship this year. Cullen began competing in Donor Games Open events in 2024. This was his first Donor Games Championship.
For the fourth year in a row, the Donor Games Championship demonstrated the physical fitness and athletic accomplishments of living donors. “The National Kidney Registry launched the Donor Games in 2020 to debunk the generally held belief that donating a kidney would negatively affect the donor’s health,” said Garet Hil, Founder and CEO of the National Kidney Registry.
“After 30+ Donor Games competitions, involving hundreds of athletes, we have proven that being a living donor does not limit or impair a person’s health or fitness.”
The National Kidney Registry congratulates all the winners and thanks all the participants for continuing to demonstrate the amazing fitness of living kidney donors. See the full results as well as the highlights video of the event.
About the Donor Games
In a 2023 survey, 73% of respondents felt that donating a kidney would negatively affect their health. The Donor Games refutes this widely held misconception by showcasing the impressive health and fitness of donors from around the country.
About the National Kidney Registry
The National Kidney Registry (www.kidneyregistry.com) is an organization whose mission is to save and improve the lives of people facing kidney failure by increasing the quality, speed, and number of living donor transplants while protecting all living donors.
