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- Instagram Follower Gains Slow for 2025 Games Athletes
Instagram Follower Gains Slow for 2025 Games Athletes
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Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up.
In today’s edition:
📲 IG follower growth slows at 2025 Games.
📚 Back-to-school without losing your mind (or fitness routine).
🔈 New Not For Time episode — Sean and John recap the Games!
🐺 Get to know Jenn Powers as she builds new UGL team, the New York Wolves.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
[It’s] like having a pack of 20. You're giving birth to 20 more stories, 20 more people to say, ‘I know how to turn my pain into power.’”
CROSSFIT GAMES
Games Athletes’ Instagram Gains Hit 5-Year Low – What It Says About the Sport
Credit: Scott Freymond
Every year after the CrossFit Games, we take a look at who won the “Instagram follower game” – meaning, which athlete picked up the most followers during the week of the Games.
We track their follower counts from the morning of the first day of the Games through the morning after the final day.
This year, for the first time since we began analyzing the data in 2021, the two athletes with the most new followers are the two athletes who won the CrossFit Games: Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr and Jayson Hopper.
Toomey-Orr added 30,344 new Instagram followers, while Hopper logged 18,722.
Worth noting: The athlete with the most significant percentage increase in followers was rookie Lydia Fish, who gained 87.24% by adding 4,669 followers.
This year’s top 10:
Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr – 30,344
Jayson Hopper – 18,722
Aimee Cringle – 13,309
Brooke Wells – 12,428
Lucy Campbell – 12,126
Colten Mertens – 9,968
Danielle Brandon – 9,774
Fee Saghafi – 7,236
Kaylan Souza – 6,585
Olivia Kerstetter – 5,377
Read on as we break down the five-year trends and compare follower gains from years past.
A MESSAGE FROM GYMREAPERS
Champions Are Made, Not Born
The CrossFit Games reminded us who’s on top. Some are born with gifts. Others build something stronger.
If you’re coming out of the weekend wondering what it takes, this is what it takes.
*This newsletter relies on our sponsors. Please consider supporting them.
SPEED READS
🎽🥇 Games Winner’s Shirts: Velites, the official apparel and Footwear Partner of the 2025 CrossFit Games, has two new additions to its lineup. Pre-order your Toomey-Orr or Hopper winner’s shirt now!
🏋️♀️ 📅 Catch Up: Did you miss Dave Castro’s Week in Review from 8/4? Check out Castro’s recap of the 2025 CrossFit Games, his Albany highlights, why the last-minute IE04 workout twist happened, and the fan-fueled event names. He also addresses pegboard challenges and programming decisions from behind the curtain.
🌎 📋 Now Hiring: LRX is hiring a part-time Community & Events Coordinator to help grow its national presence through fitness, pop-ups, and purpose. If you’ve got a passion for people, a knack for logistics, and love making things happen — this is your shot to build something bigger.
🏋️♂️🔁 Back to Basics: In this CrossFit Training video, coaches Eric O'Connor (CF-L4) and Stephane Rochet (CF-L3) break down why the humble air squat still reigns supreme as the foundation of CrossFit training. From first-timers to 10-year vets, mastery never ends.
ICYMI: 🎟️ Top 10 WFP Challengers earn a ticket to Copenhagen — who's it gonna be?
MEMBER EXCLUSIVE
Back-to-School Without Burning Out – A Playbook for Fit Moms
Credit: Shutterstock
The “back-to-school season” sounds cute in theory, but for many moms, it often feels like a whirlwind of Target runs, lunchboxes, hectic mornings, permission slips, and last-minute Amazon orders.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, you’re not alone.
This time of year can be overwhelming. That’s why this guide aims to help you reset, simplify, and breathe, all while taking care of your family and yourself.
Let’s make this back-to-school season feel less like survival mode and more like a fresh start so you can stay focused on your health and fitness goals too!
PODCAST
Not For Time Podcast Episode 3, Live Now!
COMPETITIONS
Building Her Own (Wolf) Pack – How Jenn Powers Became a Grid League Team Owner
Credit: @shotbyshombre / Instagram
Jenn Powers didn’t set out to become a Grid League team owner.
But if you’ve followed her journey – from the athlete pursuing fitness as a form of healing, to the woman discovering strength in community – it’s not all that surprising.
When Powers was at her heaviest years ago, she weighed over 325 pounds, was in the ICU, and on various medications.
She chose to change her life, and after a long, winding journey, she felt prepared to take on a new challenge.
Powers is now the newest team owner in the United Grid League, and her New York Wolves will join the league’s eight other teams next season. Read on to learn how it all happened.
HIGHLIGHTS
Celebrating a PR, hosting a fundraiser, this, that, or otherwise? Send us a tip.
Well done to Hannah Black on this set of 20 back squats at 117 kilos/260 pounds, (The Rock’s bodyweight 😅) .
Check out this huge back squat from CrossFit Mayhem team member Rebecka Divine, at 174 kilos/385 pounds.
🙌And in yet even more back squat news, congratulations to Bayley Martin on this 211-kilo/465-pound PR.
Check out this throwback of CrossFit Games 3rd place finisher, Olivia Kerstetter. Overhead lunge to the finish!
☄️Watch this throwback from the 2012 CrossFit Games from the event, “Ball Toss.” Will this one ever made a comeback?
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