The Open Report, Week 7: Are You New Here?

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Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up.

In today’s edition:

• The Open Report is back for week seven! Check out Known and Knowable’s analysis of “new” vs. “returning” athletes in the 2025 CrossFit Open.

• Credit card fees can quickly add up for small gym owners. Learn how three gym owners have addressed this issue in their communities.

• Rhapsody Fitness, Holy City CrossFit, and Pale Horse CrossFit are celebrating the Open with the ChuckTown Throwdown in Charleston, SC. Find out more about how Alan Shaw uses the event to build community today.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“[W]ith all the noise that's happening right now with everything […] what's happening day in and day out in our affiliates is what CrossFit actually is.” - Alan Shaw, owner of Rhapsody Fitness, Charleston, SC

CROSSFIT GAMES

The Open Report, Week 7: Did You Repeat 22.3? Or Are You New Here?

CrossFit Open workout 25.2 was a repeat of 22.3 — was your score better or worse this time around?

CrossFit is observable, measurable, and repeatable. Over the years, a repeat workout in the Open can tell an athlete a lot about their fitness and skill work. The same goes for Open registration comparisons. 

In 2022, 254,118 athletes (87% of registrants) submitted a score for 22.3. For this year’s repeat, 199,174 (85%) submitted a score.

Digging a little deeper: Of the nearly 294,000 athletes who registered for the 2022 Open, only 78,306 registered this year. 

• While some of those athletes may still have repeated the workout in their gym, their official score will not be on the leaderboard.

Big Takeaways

• Of the total registration for 2025, 65,439 athletes signed up for the first time.

• A total of 199,706 athletes did not return in 2025 after registering for the 2024 CrossFit Open.

• The small, continued registration increase day over day (an average of about 66 people per day) brings the total prize pool up to $2,354,530. See below for what that means for the Fittest on Earth. 

• Around 235,303 athletes have registered so far for the 2025 season.

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SPEED READS

🚨🚨 The CrossFit Open Is Here! The 2025 CrossFit Open heads into its final week. You can still register officially through March 17. Sign up now!

🌎 🎟️ 2025 Qualifying Event Updates: Here are a few quick updates from some of the 2025 CrossFit Games Qualifying Events.

• Rebel Renegade Games: Organizers have opened an Affiliate Cup division for gyms in qualifying regions. Find out if your gym is the fittest in Africa, the UAE, and the Gulf. Learn more here.

•  French Throwdown: Spectator tickets for one of the two European In-Person Qualifying Events go on sale today. Details here.

• Mayhem Classic: The first In-Person Qualifying Event of the season, the Mayhem Classic Invitational, has partnered with the Association of Fitness Judges.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 💪2025 Rogue Invitational: Mark your calendars — tickets for the 2025 Rogue Invitational go on sale today, Wednesday, March 12. Get the details here.

ICYMI: The Functional Fitness Group in Norway is de-affiliating 10 of its 16 gyms. CrossFit Oslo, its flagship gym, will remain affiliated for now. Get the details here.

MEMBER EXCLUSIVE

Tired of Paying Credit Card Fees? How Three Gym Owners Found a Solution

Rachael Small, Rudy Trevino, and Emily Wagner felt they were wasting money on credit card fees. 

• Wagner, the owner of Newport Fitness in Newport, KY, was paying $1,400 monthly fees. 

• Trevino, the owner of Fit Stop CrossFit in San Antonio, TX, was forking out $1,000 a month, while credit card fees cost Small, the owner of GRIT Strength & Functional Training in Virginia Beach, VA, between $700 and $800 a month.

Today, all three have found ways to put this money back in their pockets.

Pass The Fee

In September, Small began charging her members the credit card fee. She explained that although it’s a small amount for one membership, it adds up for the small gym owner.

• “We just made it a flat 5% transaction fee across all invoices. If $6 to $7 is going to deter someone from continuing or signing up for a membership, perhaps they aren’t a good fit long term,” she explained. 

Ultimately, when she made the demand, she said there was “no backlash.”

• “There were a few members who have paid in full by check…but other than that, it has been fine,” she added. 

Trevino took a similar approach.

• “The pitch [to our members] was that we didn’t want to raise rates technically, and this was in lieu of that,” he said, adding that his costs have gone up, and he hasn’t increased rates in a few years. However, he is at least saving that $1,000 a month in fees he used to lose.

COMMUNITY

Downtown Charleston Affiliates Use the CrossFit Open as an Opportunity to Come Together

Alan Shaw, co-owner of Rhapsody Fitness in downtown Charleston, SC, has started a new CrossFit Open tradition. The tradition brings together gyms in the area for a Friday Night Lights event, which is a staple in the CrossFit community. 

Rhapsody Fitness and a couple of other gyms in the surrounding area launched the Downtown ChuckTown Throwdown last year and brought it back for the 2025 Open. 

• This year, Rhapsody Fitness, Holy City CrossFit, and Pale Horse CrossFit are all participating in the throwdown. Each Friday, they take turns hosting athletes. 

The CrossFit community around the globe has been at a crossroads when it comes to handling the 2025 CrossFit Games season. The death of Lazar Ðukić at the 2024 CrossFit Games brought everyone to a halt, and as a result, some athletes and affiliates have chosen not to participate this year.

For Rhapsody Fitness, Shaw saw it as an opportunity to come together and focus on CrossFit at the community level. 

• “I think with all the noise that’s happening right now with everything […] what’s happening day in and day out in our affiliates is what CrossFit actually is,” Shaw told the Morning Chalk Up in an interview. 

Shaw and his husband founded Rhapsody Fitness in 2018 after moving down from New York City. They have a little over 200 members and pride themselves on being a gym for anyone and everyone. 

• “We live in an amazing city — we’re by the beach, and we have warm weather for most of the year, and people like to live that beach life here. Being able to sort of balance that here is really important to me,” Shaw said. 

HIGHLIGHTS

Celebrating a PR, hosting a fundraiser, this, that, or otherwise? Send us a tip.

• 🎂Happy birthday to Hayley Murillo and Jenna Cannon.

• Check out Jonne Koski, matching his exact time on 25.2 from 22.3.

• Happy three-year anniversary to HWPO Training.

• Check out young Darius from DP Box in Brazil, running 25.2. Well done, Darius!

• 💪Great work to Peter Ellis on this clean and jerk complex at 140 kilos/308 pounds.

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