What is Crossfit?

Crossfit is a sport, oviously, inspired by the training of the U.S. Army, founded in the year 2000, by Greg Glassman and  Lauren Jenai.

The Crossfit Games

The CrossFit Games is an athletic competition.The competition has been held every summer since 2007. Athletes at the Games compete in workouts that they learn about hours or days beforehand, consisting mostly of an assortment of standard aerobic, weightlifting, and gymnastics movements, as well as some additional surprise elements that are not part of the typical CrossFit regimen such as obstacle courses, ocean swimming, softball throwing, or ascending a pegboard.The CrossFit Games stylizes their individual winners as the „Fittest on Earth”.

The Open, introduced in 2011 and so-called because participation is open to anyone,is held over five weeks in February–March; a new workout is released on each Thursday night (Pacific Time) and competitors complete the workout and submit their scores online by Monday evening, with either a video or validation by a CrossFit affiliate. Since 2013, Open workout announcements have been broadcast live, and featured two or more past CrossFit Games athletes competing head-to-head immediately following the workout description. Beginning with the 2019 Games, the top athlete from each country and the top 20 overall Open finishers qualify directly to the Games. The Open is also used for seeding purposes at the Games even if an athlete qualified through the sanctioned events; if an athlete qualifies through a sanctioned event but does not do the Open, they will be seeded at the bottom. For the 2020 season, the Open will move forward to October 2019 as part of the overhaul for Games qualifications.

Divisions

Individuals

The marquee events at the CrossFit Games are the men’s and women’s individual competitions. The first place prize for each currently stands at $300,000.

Team

Originally, teams were awarded the „Affiliate Cup” for having the best overall score from the individual athletes that had come from the same CrossFit-affiliated gym. In 2009, the Games began having a separate set of events for affiliate teams and consisted of four to six athletes from the same gym. The next season, the format was finalized to teams of three men and three women. In the 2018 games, each team was changed to four members, two men and two women. In 2019, CrossFit removed the stipulation that team members had to be from the same affiliate. Teams are subject to a similar qualification process as the individuals.

Masters and Teens

The Games include age-based divisions for younger and older competitors. Masters divisions were introduced at the 2010 Games. There are currently six divisions each for women and men: 35–39, 40–44, 45–49, 50–54, 55–59, and 60+. Divisions for teenagers were introduced in 2015: the age ranges are 14–15 and 16–17, for both boys and girls. Rather than regional events, masters and teen athletes qualify for the games by a second online competition following the Open. The top 200 athletes in each division worldwide are invited to compete in this qualifier, of which the top 20 (top 10 as of 2019) advance to the Games. Prior to the introduction of these secondary online qualifiers, masters and teens competitors qualified for the Games directly from the Open.