I got questions. So many questions about the upcoming year of fitness racing. Some can be answered. Who are the final three contract athletes in the World Fitness Project? Others are still to be determined based on future events. Will a lack of prize money limit the top athletes from pursuing a CrossFit Games ticket?
I also have plenty of questions around the In-Person Qualifying events and their constant evolution of qualifying requirements. For each of the qualifying events, I have a major question that can impact the overall competitive field of each competition.
Mayhem Classic: Who are you giving your wild card spots to?
In their announcement of the Mayhem Classic, Rich Froning and crew talked about an invite only competition, based on historical competition performance. Mayhem then used the Rogue Invitational Ranking to send out their invites (men & women).
The invite list went to 18 athletes. The Mayhem Classic field will be 20 athletes. If they weren’t going to have any wild card invites, they would have just emailed the top 20 from the Rogue rankings to start. So, who are those wild card invites going to be?
Copa Sur: Is this Guilherme Malheiros’s best shot to make the CrossFit Games?
Guilherme Malheiros is going to win the max-lift event in any CrossFit competition he enters. Malheiros on the other hand will finish in the middle or the bottom of the pack in a long endurance event depending on the strength of the field. His strengths and weaknesses balance, which lands him in or around 10th place on most major competition leaderboards.
It’s because his strengths are cancelled by his weaknesses that Gui Malheiros could struggle to get a Games spot. He’s scheduled to compete at the Mayhem Classic, where it’ll be tough for Malheiros to finish in the top 2 alongside Roman Khrennikov, Dallin Pepperand Jayson Hopper.
Malheiros had a 2nd in world wide quarterfinals back in 2022 so it’s possible for him to qualify for the Games out of the in-affiliate Semifinals. However, the in-affiliate Semifinals are a week before the World Fitness Project, where he is a contract athlete. Will Malheiros(and others) hold back in the in-affiliate Semifinals to be rested for the World Fitness Project?
While he could do Syndicate Crown based on training at CrossFit Mayhem, he’ll probably face a handful of top competitors from North America East making Malheiros an underdog for a Games spot in that event as well.
That leaves Copa Sur as his pathway to the Games. Over the 4 years of Semifinals, Malheiros finished in the top 2 of the South American Semi Final 3 times. Making the trip to and from Brazil would put a wrinkle on Malheiros’ training for the World Fitness Project, but it’s a sacrifice he should probably make if the 2025 CrossFit Games are a goal.
Wodland Fest: Is the invite list indicative of the top European athletes’ interest in the Games season?
The first wave of wild card invites from Wodland Fest included some of the biggest names in the sport, especially from a European standpoint. Roman Khrennikov, Aniol Ekai (17th at the 2024 CrossFit Games) and Sara Sigmundsdottir, who despite recent competition results remains one of the biggest names in the sport, were the first three announced.
I expected the remainder of the invites to be a list of European Games athletes from the past few years. While Elisa Fuliano, Matilde Garnes and Fabian Beneito have been announced, the 2024 Games rookies, Claudia Gluck, Aimee Cringle, Linda Keesman, and Harry Lightfoot have not. Nor have Games veterans Karin Freyova, Jelle Hoste, Henrik Haapalainen and Björgvin Karl Guðmundsson.
With the first World Fitness Project event happening the same weekend as the French Throwdown, Wodland Fest is the easiest IPQE for the top Europeans to compete at. Which makes their absence from the athletes announced so far puzzling.
It’s possible that Wodland Fest didn’t invite them. Invite lists in the world of CrossFit don’t always make sense (to me at least). But if I was launching a new competition, I’d want the best athletes possible to help bring people in.
Or is this a canary in a coalmine scenario, and many of the top Europeans are just out on the season?
French Throwdown: Will this be a way to sneak into the CrossFit Games?
The French Throwdown announced their competition dates way back on November 6th. Before we knew anything about the World Fitness Project, its structure or the athletes who are part of the 2025 roster. It was also way before the World Fitness Project announced their first tour event date, which happens to be the same weekend as the French Throwdown.
With 20 of the top CrossFit athletes in the world already set to compete, and another 10 set to qualify for the inaugural World Fitness Project event, the French Throwdown could find itself without any “star” athletes in its elite field.
With the majority of the IPQEs awarding two spots, the absence of the best in the world could make the French Throwdown the easiest way to qualify for the Games. By easiest I mean a tough competition where athletes need to perform their best to win. They also won’t need to pull off a major upset to qualify.
TFX Invitational: Will the results of the in-affiliate Semifinals hurt the competition?
The CrossFit Semifinals are May 2nd to 4th, with the leaderboard being finalized no later than May 19th. The TFX Invitational is scheduled for May 16th – 18th. With the number of athletes competing, and the number of videos to review, there is a strong chance that the leaderboard for the CrossFit Semifinals, and the 11 Games tickets up for grabs, will become final immediately before or during the TFX Invitational.
If an athlete gets a Games ticket after day 1 of competition, will they withdraw, or put their body through two more days of competition? Could the points they earn before dropping out be the difference maker in who gets the 2 invites from this IPQE?
To put it more concretely let’s say we have the following:
Event 1
- Athlete A – 100 points
- Athlete B – 96 points
- Athlete C – 92 points
- Athlete D – 88 points
After Event 1, Athlete B finds out they qualified for the Games and withdraws from competition. The rest of the athletes compete for the rest of the weekend and we have the final results.
Final Standings
- Athlete C – 500 points
- Athlete A – 496 points
- Athlete D – 493 points
Hmm, if Athlete B had known they made the Games before the competition started, it would have meant Athlete D made the Games instead of Athlete A since there would have only been an 4 point gap between the two athletes in event 1 instead of 8 .
It’s a hypothetical situation at this point, but given the timelines, one with a real possibility of happening.
Less impactful of the overall standings, but one that could cause frustration among fans is if invites were to come out on May 12th. This would be roughly the time when athletes would be travelling to the TFX Invitational. Could this lead to a handful of Games bound athletes withdrawing from competition with little to no notice? Probably.
Wait and See
With the Open 4 weeks away, things are bound to change, clarify and become fuzzier across the competitive landscape between now and when the competitions start.
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