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2025 CrossFit Games In-Person Qualifying Events Schedule Announced

December 23rd, 2024

Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up.

In today’s edition:

  • The CrossFit Games team revealed the In-Person Qualifying Event schedule for 2025. Check it out below.

  • How can you attract the best leads while avoiding common marketing pitfalls in 2025?

  • Brian Friend of BFriendly Fitness sat down with Michael Gruber, host of the Good Morning Murph podcast, to discuss events surrounding the 2024 CrossFit Games, the aftermath of Lazar Ðukić’s tragic death, and how the 2025 season might unfold. Get the key takeaways below.

Editor’s Note: After tomorrow's newsletter, we will be off for the holidays, but we’ll be back in action on January 2 and ready to rock for the 2025 season!

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“The goal of sharing these things is to provide more clarity and information, to give people an opportunity to make decisions for themselves with a more well-rounded perspective.” - Brian Friend, BFriendly Fitness, on his decision to share details from the 2024 CrossFit Games on the Good Morning Murph podcast.

CROSSFIT GAMES

Credit: Carlos Fleury

2025 CrossFit Games In-Person Qualifying Events Schedule

The CrossFit Games team revealed the In-Person Qualifying Events schedule for the 2025 season.

Remind me: In late November, the Games team laid out an overview of the 2025 season structure, which included some significant changes to the qualifying path for the CrossFit Games.

  • The 2025 Semifinals include two parallel paths to qualify for the CrossFit Games: “in-affiliate Semifinals” and In-Person Qualifying Events.

One big thing: There will be nine In-Person Qualifying Events in 2025, beginning the first weekend in April, and there will be at least one event in every “Competitive Region” from 2024.

2025 CrossFit Games In-Person Qualifying Events Schedule

  • Mayhem Classic – Cookeville, TN, April 5-6

  • Wodland Fest – Málaga, Spain, April 25-27

  • French Throwdown – Montpellier, France, May 9-11

  • Rebel Renegade Games – Vanderbijlpark, South Africa, May 29-June 1

  • Far East Throwdown – Busan, Republic of Korea, May 30-June 1

  • Syndicate Crown – Knoxville, TN, May 30-June 1

  • Torian Pro – Brisbane, Australia, May 30-June 1

  • The Fittest Experience – Oklahoma City, OK, Date TBA

  • Cope Sur – Brazil, Date TBA

A MESSAGE FROM TIMELINE

Are you too young to think about how you’re aging? Probably not.

Starting in our 30s, some key cellular processes begin to slow down, making us feel tired and weak over time. This decline affects not just our physical strength and endurance, but significantly reduces our quality of life making everyday activities harder to enjoy.

Luckily, scientists have discovered a way to shape how we age. Mitopure®, by Timeline, targets the root cause of this cellular decline and is clinically proven to increase cellular energy, giving our bodies the energy they need to function optimally. The results? Double-digit increases in muscle strength and endurance without any change in exercise.

SPEED READS

🗣️📺 Castro Speaks: In case you missed it, late Saturday night, Dave Castro, Director of Sport for CrossFit, sat down on The Sevan Podcast for a nearly two-hour discussion. Get caught up here.

⛑️👷CrossFit Games Safety Advisory Board: CrossFit HQ announced the eight members of the newly constituted Safety Advisory Board. See more details here.

  • The board includes:

    • Robert C. Oh, MD, MPH

    • Allison Brager, PhD

    • Rich Froning, 10-time CrossFit Games Champ

    • Michael Cohen, CEO of USA Masters Weightlifting

    • Caity Matter Heninger, Co-Founder of Rogue Fitness

    • Mark Ritchie, PhD

    • Brian McGuire, MS, ATC

    • Manuel Cruz, Asst Chief Patrol Agent, US Border Patrol

😎🌴 2024 TYR WZA Miami Beach: Get your tickets for the premier fitness festival of the year now!

  • So far, the TYR WZA Elite athlete roster looks incredible! Stay tuned as more athletes and teams are being announced weekly.

🏆 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Rogue Invitational Recap on CBS: The 2024 Rogue Invitational will be replayed on CBS on December 28, 12-2 p.m. ET. Get more details here.

ICYMI: Podcasters John Wooley and Sevan Matossian are going head-to-head in the 2025 CrossFit Open with bragging rights and a $500 charitable donation on the line. How did we get here?!

MEMBER EXCLUSIVE

Credit: @crossfit845 / Instagram

How To Attract High-Quality Leads This New Year

There’s good news and bad news for gym owners.

The good news: The new year is approaching, and it tends to go hand-in-hand with an influx of people looking to get fit.

The bad news: New Year’s resolutionists tend to be dabblers looking for quick weight loss, rather than looking to change their lives long-term. And often, they’re looking to do it as cheaply as possible.

  • Further, for the gym owner, advertising during this time can be expensive—costs per lead tend to be higher than normal as all the Globo gyms pour money into digital ads early in the new year, making it an especially competitive time.

In light of this, we reached out to the experts at LASSO, a sales and lead optimization company, to find out what gym owners can do this January to reduce their cost-per-lead and to bring in people who are not only looking for a long-term commitment to their health and fitness but also are willing to pay for it. 

CROSSFIT GAMES

Credit: @chadmueller / Instagram

3 Key Takeaways from Brian Friend’s Interview on the Good Morning Murph Podcast

Over the weekend, the Good Morning Murph podcast published a recent interview with Brian Friend, CrossFit analyst and founder of B.Friendly Fitness, and Austrian Masters athlete Shireen Maria Sarwari.

  • The primary focus of the nearly two-hour conversation was the events surrounding the 2024 CrossFit Games, the death of Lazar Ðukić, the aftermath of the Games weekend, and Friend’s thoughts on the 2025 season.

In the interview, podcast host Michael Gruber asks Friend to recount the decisions he made personally in the days following Ðukić’s death, including the decision to leave Fort Worth early. 

They then turned to his decision to stay mostly quiet on the information he learned on-site and through conversations with Luka Ðukić and the Ðukić family.

The timing of the interview seemed curious, but in an email, Friend explained to the Morning Chalk Up that, “It’s something I’ve been contemplating and preparing for over the past few months, but I was never sure when and where I would do it.”

  • Friend continued: “This podcast with Michael and Shireen happened very naturally and spontaneously…I also think the way Michael set it up for a community who is largely still searching for answers [the European CrossFit community] was important.”

One big thing: Friend shares some information in the interview that might not yet be widely known and offers his thoughts on matters that have caused significant and, at times, controversial discussions among CrossFit pundits. 

With that context established, let’s take a look at three key takeaways from the conversation.

HIGHLIGHTS

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

  • 🎉Check out this bar muscle-up progression over the last year from Theresa of Carbondale CrossFit in Carbondale, CO. Great job, Theresa!

  • Practice makes progress! Congratulations to Alice of CrossFit Giants in France on her power snatch of 68 kilos/149 pounds.

  • Congratulations to John of Tolland CrossFit in Tolland, CT, on his first bar muscle-up.

  • Well done to Maddox of Natural Selection CrossFit in Kennewick, WA, on this 136-kilo/300-pound split jerk PR.

  • 🙌ICYMI, check out this 91-kilo/201-pound deadlift from 84-year-old Hollings of CrossFit Mayhem in Cookeville, TN.