CrossFit Announces 2025 Games Season Structure

November 25th, 2024

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Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up.

In today’s edition:

  • The 2025 CrossFit Games season details were announced on Friday. Check out our breakdown below.

  • EC Synkowski wants you to eat your way to more energy. Learn more.

  • Today, we drop the final part in our series highlighting longtime CrossFit affiliate owners and the advice they wish they had at the outset. Today’s topic is “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Running a gym is a serious business, but the stress that comes with it has never been placed on our membership. The atmosphere we have created allows for people to be comfortable, open, and just happy.” - Mike Corcoran, co-owner of CrossFit Mill Street in Vienna, VA, on building community and business longevity.

CROSSFIT GAMES

Credit: @known_knowable / Instagram

BREAKING: CrossFit Announces New Games Season Structure for 2025 – Big Changes for Individual Division

Following the announcement of the conclusion of its third-party investigation into Lazar Ðukić’s death at the 2024 CrossFit Games, CrossFit HQ today revealed some details about the 2025 Games season structure, including a few big changes.

  • For planning purposes at the affiliate level, the most important information in this announcement are the dates of the 2025 CrossFit Open. 

We now know that the Open will take place from February 27 to March 17 and will serve as the first stage of the qualifying process for the Individual, Team, and Age Group Divisions. (The Adaptive Division will compete in the WheelWOD, which will take place simultaneously.)

Important Dates for 2025:

  • Open Registration Begins – January 15 

  • 2025 CrossFit Open – February 27-March 17

  • Open Workout 25.1 – 12 p.m. PT Feb. 27 - 5 p.m. PT March 3

  • Open Workout 25.2 – 12 p.m. PT March 6 - 5 p.m. PT March 10

  • Open Workout 25.3 – 12 p.m. PT March 13 - 5 p.m. PT March 17   

While CrossFit’s announcement starts with “we’re making a few changes,” there are some pretty major changes coming, including: 

  • No Quarterfinals.

  • A “virtual in-affiliate Semifinals.” 

  • A set of in-person qualifying events for the Individual Division.

  • A 25% reduction in the Crossfit Games field for the elite men and women. 

    • The field will decrease from 40 men and 40 women to 30 each. 

    • The Teams field will go from 30 to 20.

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SPEED READS

💰 💴 Black Friday is still a few days away, but the sales have already begun! Check out BarBend’s rundown of the best early Black Friday deals on everything from workout equipment to supplements.

📺 🗣️ Constantly Varied Conversations: In John Wooley’s latest video, the Wooley Memeth himself breaks down recent CrossFit Games season announcements and the business decisions that might have caused them.

😎🌴 2024 TYR WZA Miami Beach Update: In case you’ve missed it, TYR WZA Miami Beach has begun to announce the athletes “confirmed to celebrate!” So far, the roster includes Ricky Garard, Pat Vellner, Dani Speegle, James Sprague, and Arielle Loewen. Many more to come.

🗳️🏋️ New PFAA Athlete Board: After a vote that ended Sunday evening, the Professional Fitness Athletes’ Association (PFAA) announced its new Athlete Board. Here are the six athletes representing various regions of the world:

  • Pat Vellner, Canada, nine-time CrossFit Games athlete

  • Danielle Brandon, United States, six-time Games athlete

  • Victoria Campos, Brazil, three-time Games athlete

  • Jelle Hoste, Belgium, two-time Games athlete

  • Jake Douglas, Australia, 2023 Games athlete

  • Christina Livaditakis, Zimbabwe, four-time Semifinal athlete

🏋️🏃PIT Training League: The organizers of the Pit Teen Throwdown announced the creation of a new competition series called the PIT Training League. Learn more and register here.

ICYMI: CrossFit created athlete boards in both 2020 and 2022. What do those experiences tell us about the prospects for the new “Athlete Council” announced last week?

MEMBER EXCLUSIVE

Credit: Brooke Lark

Eating Your Way to More Energy

When I started working with folks on the #800gChallenge® (eating 800 grams of the fruits and vegetables of your choice per day), I expected them to report weight loss or improved health markers.

  • But I was pleasantly surprised when early adopters at CrossFit Roots, where I was a coach, raved about having more energy, especially for their workouts.

On a recent episode of the Consistency Project podcast, I explained why I think decreased fatigue is the early win of eating more fruits and vegetables every day.

Real-World Results

A fascinating 2020 study by Farina et al. examined the relationship between diet quality and physical performance in Special Forces candidates. The researchers used the Healthy Eating Index (HEI) to assess the overall diet quality of approximately 500 participants.

  • This index, also used in USDA guidelines, provides a numerical value to represent the healthiness of an individual's diet based on their food choices and frequency of consumption.

The study's findings were striking: Candidates with higher HEI scores performed better on fitness tests and achieved faster ruck times. Most importantly, these individuals were more likely to be selected for Special Forces training.

AFFILIATE COMMUNITY

Credit: @crossfitballina / Instagram

WODs and Wisdom Series Part 4: 10-Year Affiliate Owners Talk What Has Changed in Business, and What Is Still Just Heavy Lifting 

Editor’s Note: This is the third part in a multi-part series highlighting longtime CrossFit gym owners, their experiences over the past decade, and some advice they wish they had at the start. Catch up on Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Former CrossFit London owner Dave Henry remembers 2007. 

He used Facebook to personally invite random college students to his gym at his parents’ garage and would collect $10 cash from each of them. And then he’d shove the money into a pencil case. 

When I joined Henry’s gym as a college student in 2009 — then a 900-square-foot facility filled with a homemade rig, sandbags, boxes, and two beat-up old rowing machines — I didn’t have a credit card yet. 

  • Each month, he would chase me down for a check that he’d take to the bank to deposit manually.

In many ways, the affiliates of those days are in no way recognizable to the affiliates of today. Now, they’re often 10,000-square-foot facilities with an entire fleet of Concept 2 rowers, bikes, Ski Ergs, and coaches with credentials well beyond the CrossFit Level 1. Not to mention well-thought-out marketing and social media plans, sophisticated software that nurtures leads through automated workflows, and a business mentor guiding the gym owner each step of the way. 

HIGHLIGHTS

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

  • 🎂Happy birthday to Rory McKernan.

  • Congratulations to Mia and Phil Hesketh, who are expecting a baby girl this summer.

  • Congratulations to Jens from CrossFit Jabav in Germany for receiving his CF-L4.

  • 🔥Congratulations to Olivia Kerstetter on this clean and jerk PR.

  • Check out this toe-to-bar muscle-up complex from Riley Martin. Maybe someone's prepping for Grid League? 😉