I find the economics in the sport of CrossFit baffling. It’s a sport where the majority of athletes compete 3 – 4 times a year. It’s also a sport that you need to dedicate your life to in order to be among the 50 best in the world.
In 2024, there were only 4 competitions where you could earn a check of $50,000 USD or more, and even that was limited to 9 men and women.
- The top 4 finishers at the CrossFit Games earned more than $50K USD
- The top 3 finishers at the Rogue Invitational also earned more than $50K
- The winner of Wodapalooza earned $75,000 USD
- The winner of the Dubai Fitness Championship won $50,000 USD
While top athletes have a chance to earn 6 figure incomes over the course of the year from prize money alone, there is a sharp drop off to the 2nd and 3rd level athletes. In a hypothetical situation where an athlete had these finishes in a season
- 11th at the Games
- 11th at Rogue
- 5th at Wodapalooza
- 5th in Semifinals
This athlete would be considered among the best in the world. Their prize money for the year would have been $35,577.25.
A family income of $35,000 is in the 10th percentile of US households.
In the daily lives of CrossFitters, sponsors play a significant role in their annual income. The value of sponsorship deals are not publicized, but would the 10th Fittest person on earth bring in another $35K in sponsorship deals? What about the 20th Fittest person? Is it enough to support full time training?
Our view into an athlete’s life being predominantly via social media. The perception that gets portrayed is the majority of athletes are indeed full time athletes. Which is where the numbers don’t add up for me.
It’s likely that this wonder in how the whole ecosystem works that has drawn me into the prize money section of theCrossFit Games Rule Book over the last week. I’ve definitely spent more time than the average CrossFitter looking at the details. I even built an estimation tool to help model scenarios.
After looking at the Rulebook for far too long, I have three big takeaways.
All Out in the Open
For years people have been calling for more transparency from CrossFit HQ and it hasn’t happened. Until now, that is. Before registration for the CrossFit Open even began, we have the breakdown of what the cash prizes will look like this year.
So props to CrossFit for being transparent. Interesting place to start, but it’s a start.
Everyone can estimate what the prize purse will be for the season, and make decisions accordingly. With the formulas in place to determine the cash payout for every stage of the season, by the time the end of week 1 of the Open rolls around, athletes will know if and how they want to approach the season.
CrossFit has acknowledged that their formula is the floor for the cash prize. The rulebook states “Additional prizes may be presented by partners, sponsors, or select vendors”. So if the stars align, the cash prize could go up as the season progresses.
The Rich Get Richer
In CrossFit’s model with 300,000 Open participants the winner of the CrossFit Games will receive $367,000. This marks a $52,000 jump from 2024. When it comes to the percentage of the total prize purse across all divisions an stages, in 2025 the top prize is 12.23% of the money, compared to 9.5% in 2024.
The increase in prize for the best largely comes at the expense of the other podium finishers. In CrossFit’s model, second place in 2025 will receive $73,500 compared to $125,000 in 2024. The third fittest athletes on earth will receive $58,800 down from $85,000 last year.
In terms of just the individual field the prizes for the Fittest Man and Women on Earth account for a whopping 50% of the cash prize. If we look at other individual sports
- The winner’s check at the 2024 Master’s was 20% of the total prize.
- The winner’s of the US Open Tennis tournament received $3.6M last year, but that was only 13.7% of the total prize purse.
- At the 2023 Pro Bowlers Association Tournament of Champions, the winner received $100,000, which was 30.7% prize pool.
- In the 2024 World Series of Poker Main Event the winner took home a cool $10,000,000, but that was only 10.6% of the pot.
CrossFit is a unique sport, but compared to other individual sports (niche or mainstream), its 2025 allocation of prize money to the winner is in a league of its own.
Now, looking at second place. In order for the second Fittest on Earth to make the same in 2025 as they did in 2024, there would need to be 510,204 participants in the Open this year. That would be roughly 25% more people than 2018. 2018 had the most Open registrations in history.
This leads to another thought. CrossFit is a sport where champions aren’t easily dethroned. Froning and Fraser were dominant. Toomey is dominant, and if she steps away from the game Horvath would probably be dominant too. How much of their advantage is/was driven by finances? Body work costs money. Proper nutrition costs money. Recovery and home gyms cost money. If you never need to worry about how much that all costs, and between sessions you can just rest and refuel, you’re going to be at an advantage over someone who is coaching classes or doing PT between their training sessions.
Poor Teams
The good news for teams in 2025 is that all 20 teams that make it to the CrossFit Games will receive a prize, whereas only the top 10 teams received a prize in 2024. Teams will also need to travel once for competition this year, where in 2024 they also travelled for Semifinals.
On the other side, it’s likely a money losing operation for the majority of the teams. To start, there are $821 in registration fees for a team with substitutes across all three stages of competition. There needs to be 164,200 registrants in the Open for the 20th place team just to receive their entry fees back. And that’s before the taxman takes some of it back.
With airfare and a minimum of 5 nights accommodation, chances are it’ll be a minimum of $6,000 of travel expenses for a team to compete at the Games. With CrossFit’s 300,000 Open registrars example, only the top 7 teams would cover travel expenses and registration fees.
This makes the majority of the teams funding this experience out of pocket. Teams are also prohibited from raising money by having a sponsor in their team name. This relegates them to t-shirt drives and bake sales to help cover their cost.
It’s true these athletes are doing it for the love of the game. However, if any questions arise about “why isn’t the team competition growing”? It’s because it’s a losing operation.
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