🔥 Week 2 of the 2026 CrossFit Open Starts Now!

March 5th, 2026

POWERED BY

Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up.

In today’s edition:

  • 🇩🇪 At its annual Primer in Germany, CrossFit athletes and HYROX stars gathered for a week of testing, lactate labs, and the debut of the Adizero Dropset Elite.

  • ⚡Two-time Open champion Mirjam von Rohr crushed 26.1 in 9:50, reinforcing her status as the clear favorite to win the 2026 CrossFit Open.

  • đź‘ź From launching a dedicated race shoe to sponsoring the 2026 World Championships, Puma believes hybrid fitness racing is just getting started.

QUOTE OF THE DAY
âťť

When I started CrossFit, I couldn’t even throw a 4kg ball to the target height. I really didn’t like wall balls and for a long time I kept telling myself that I did.”

Mirjam von Rohr, winner of CrossFit Open 26.1.
INDUSTRY

Inside Adidas’ Annual “Primer” Event

Credit: Adidas

Last week, the second annual Adidas Primer took place again at Adidas Headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany. 

  • The brand hosted its full roster of CrossFit athletes and, for the first time, its full roster of hybrid training athletes. 

Since last year, Adidas has continued to invest in its training sector – the year-over-year differences in the Primer are among the major indicators. Compared to last year, the roster of hybrid athletes has more than tripled, with athletes representing the three stripes worldwide. 

HYROX, Spartan Deka, and OCR competitors converged on Adidas HQ, having traveled from the U.K., Colombia, Mexico, Finland, Spain, Italy, and beyond. 

Several of those included were 2025 HYROX World Champion Tim Wenisch, Elite 15 competitors Pelayo Menendez Fernandez, Elena Rouco Chas, and Graham Halliday.

Adidas’s presence in competitive CrossFit has also grown. Over the past year, the brand has signed 2024 Fittest on Earth James Sprague, Mirjam von Rohr, and Harry Lightfoot. 

In addition to investing in individual athletes, Adidas continues to sponsor the World Fitness Project (WFP) as it enters its second year. 

  • The Adidas-backed ATHX Games continues to grow, with the first U.S.-based competition held on Miami Beach, FL, just one weekend after Wodapalooza, March 21-22.

Once again, our team was privileged to be on-site for the week of the Primer. Here are a few highlights that stood out.

Gear Up for WZA With the Reebok Nano X5 Edge

Reebok took an award winning shoe, and made it even better. The Reebok Nano X5 Edge is built for your training grind.

A DualResponse EVA midsole cushions every jump while the Lift-and-Run chassis gives you stability during heavy lifts. A FlexWeave upper locks you in and flexes as you move. Translation: this shoe is a game-changer.

Available in both bold colors, perfect for your Wodapalooza fit.

*This newsletter relies on our sponsors. Please consider supporting them.

SPEED READS

🎬🏋️ 2025 CrossFit Games Documentary Drops: The newest installment in the Fittest on Earth series — “Fittest on Earth: 2025” — is now available to rent or purchase, offering a behind-the-scenes look at the athletes, rivalries, and defining moments of the 2025 CrossFit Games season.

📬🏋️ CrossFit Athlete Council Opens Direct Feedback Channel: The CAC has launched a dedicated email address (here) for athletes and community members to share questions, feedback, or concerns about the season directly with the council.

⚗️💊 Supplement Industry Eyes New Watchdog: A new independent certification initiative, SUPPCO, is aiming to bring greater transparency and accountability to the booming supplement market by evaluating product quality, manufacturing standards, and ingredient accuracy.

🏋️‍♂️🧠 Back Squats Aren’t the Problem: When back squats cause pain, the fix isn’t swapping them out for single-leg movements — it’s addressing the underlying issue. Stephane Rochet argues the squat is a foundational movement that builds full-body strength and capacity; if it hurts, athletes should scale the load, clean up technique, and shore up weaknesses rather than abandoning the lift altogether.

ICYMI: CrossFit announced that CEO Don Faul would step down at the end of this week. (Rx article)

MEMBER EXCLUSIVE

Breaking Down Mirjam von Rohr’s 26.1 CrossFit Open Performance

Credit: Scott Freymond

If there was any doubt that Mirjam von Rohr was the heavy favorite to win the 2026 CrossFit Open, it was put to rest when she posted her time of 9:50 on 26.1. 

  • Von Rohr’s time is 44 seconds faster than the next fastest female, Lucy Campbell. 

Remind me: Switzerland’s von Rohr has won the Open for the last two seasons. Last year, she made her CrossFit Games debut, finishing seventh and winning the Rookie of the Year award.

How She Did It

Von Rohr completed all 26.1’s 354 reps of wall balls, box jump overs, and medicine ball step overs in 9:50 (590 seconds). 

  • This means her average pace was 1.66 seconds per repetition, or 36 reps per minute, not to mention the transition time between the wall and the box for each set.

INDUSTRY

“We’re Just Seeing the Tip of the Iceberg:” Inside Puma’s Long-Term HYROX Vision

Credit: @pumatraining / Instagram

Arriving at HYROX Las Vegas reminded me of the 2011 CrossFit Games: Reebok had stormed the venue, giving everyone the sense that our sport had finally become legit.

  • The same was true in Las Vegas, although this time it was Puma in the spotlight.

Regardless, any thoughts I might have once had about HYROX having a shelf life, or being a short-lived fad like Tough Mudder, were no longer there. 

I also had the chance to sit down with Stefan Popovic, Puma’s PR liaison for running and training, to discuss Puma’s involvement and their new HYROX shoe — the Deviate NITRO Elite HYROX — which was released the day before HYROX Las Vegas began.

Although this is the first year Puma is the title sponsor of the HYROX World Championships in Stockholm, Sweden, in June, the brand first partnered with HYROX in 2017, before most of us had heard of it.

  • The first event was held in Hamburg, Germany, and it had 600 participants, Popovic explained. In comparison, HYROX Las Vegas last month had more than 17,000.

Needless to say, today — with a full line of HYROX apparel and shoes and as the title sponsor of this year’s World Championships — HYROX has become “a key thing” for Puma, Popovic said.

HYROX has become “a key thing” because Puma recognized “how well received the concept was from Day 1,” Popovic said.

  • “And this is me speaking from a personal perspective, but we see the potential for it to be as big as marathon running,” he added.

HIGHLIGHTS

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

  • 🎂Happy anniversary (3/9) to Core City CrossFit Kids in Detroit, MI.

  • Happy birthday (3/10) to Tommy Marquez.

  • Congratulations to Dylan Malitsky and Katie Price, who welcomed their new baby, Ricky, on 2/21.

  • Check out HYROX Elite 15 racer Lauren Weeks knocking out Open workout 26.1 She’s unofficially 8th in the world overall.

  • 🤯ICYMI, congrats to Mirjam von Rohr, who completed 26.1 in a blistering 9:50, which is the fastest time worldwide, for any man or woman. (Read our article above, where we break it down.)