What the 2019 Games are going to be like

If you've been living in a bubble for the last year or are new to the world of CrossFit, you may not know that after the 2018 Games a series of drastic changes were announced for the 2019 season. Among those changes was the elimination of the Invitational ( the CrossFit All Star), as well as the Regionals as part of the athlete selection process for the Games. This brought with it new ways to get to the CrossFit Games : Being Top20 in the world in the open, being the national champion in the open or winning one of the championships that are held around the world and that carry the “sanctioned” seal of CrossFit ( as is this weekend's French Throwdown, last of the season). In addition to these changes, there were others such as the mass dismissal of the entire CrossFit HQ communication team, which has had different repercussions. Now that we know the past, this is the present and future. Not the 40 athletes classified through Regionals will arrive at the 2019 CrossFit Games, but around 160 (national champions, world top 20 and sanctional winners). There has been much speculation about what the format of these Games will be like, which multiplies the presence of athletes by 4. And we already know what they are going to be like.

Duration

The duration in recent years has been from Wednesday to Sunday, with Thursday being a day of rest. Wednesday was traditionally a day of long cardio runs (swimming in the sea, running, etc.) although last year we saw a different format. This duration posed different problems. For the public, having a day with “nothing” to see (some Masters and Teens did compete) made the trip to Madison tedious, in turn this also posed a problem for the companies that go as sellers since it was a day with little movement. This year, the Games are held from Thursday, August 1 to Sunday, August 4. You may have heard rumors that the national champions start on Monday, July 29 and that they will be cut and only the best will make it to Thursday. These rumors are false. Why are they fake? For the most powerful reason of all. The money. Starting the Games on a Monday means that judges, volunteers, vendors, media, assembly, etc.... have to work 4 more days just to filter out the best athletes. Not convinced? Another one: in theory the “less” good athletes would get to face Aunt-Clair Toomey with 3 days of competition in their bodies. In addition, world-class athletes such as Sara Sigmundsdottir and Toomey herself have qualified as national champions. Are they really going to tire out their stars for 3 days? you need more? Ok, tickets to the Games. Tickets to the Games have been selling for months and these are from August 1 to 4. Are the athletes going to compete behind closed doors? Without an audience? If there is no audience, are the Games (money) going to be set up solely to hold a kind of Regionals behind closed doors? It seems that with this the duration of the 2019 Games is clear.

What will the format be like?

We know that during these Games athletes will be eliminated. Basically we know it because Greg Glassman CEO of CrossFit said it during an interview several months ago. Ok, now that you are clear that the Games last 4 consecutive days, let's see what the athlete elimination process will be like . You are ready? Drum roll..... As it has always been done! in Regionals, Games, and other championships such as the Rogue Invitational, with minimums in each WOD . Perhaps as spectators we are not aware but all Regionals and Games events have a minimum. Some example: Rita García in the 2016 Meridian Regionals was disqualified (many thought she had retired) because in a WOD it was mandatory to finish some Wall Ball and she did not have time. Laura Horvath and Margaux Alvarez were disqualified at the Rogue Invitational for not finishing the Strict Deficit HSPU of the penultimate event. There are many examples and if we also take into account that CrossFit has data to create a profile of the Top 10 athlete, it is very easy to hold events with minimums that ensure that only the 10 best athletes in the world make it to Sunday. Let's do an exercise with the Games 2018. Let's take the events of the first day. Event 1: Cycling criterion Event 2: 30 Ring MU Event 3: CrossFit Total Event 4: Row Marathon CrossFit knows that a Top10 world athlete does the cycling criterion in 10 minutes, the 30 RMU in 4, lifts more than 450kg in the CrossFit Total and finish the Row Marathon in less than 3 hours. Those would be the minimums for each event. How many athletes from around the world would make it to day 2 of the competition? Perhaps a Top10 from 2018 is not the fastest on the bike, because the champion of Austria or Paraguay is a former cyclist. Maybe a Top10 won't win the CrossFit Total because the UAE champion is a former powerlifter. But a CrossFit athlete doesn't have to be the best at everything, but rather the most consistent. HOW (YES WE KNOW) THE 2019 GAMES ARE GOING TO BE Fun . The show is not going to be compromised by all these changes, on the contrary, I think that some unknown athletes can be specialists in certain WODs and can give spectacular performances. Will we see Mat Fraser suffer in a WOD against a pure specialist? There is nothing confirmed, nothing definitive, nothing certain, but there is one month left to discover it and enjoy the show.