2025 CrossFit Open Men's Division - Key Takeaways

March 25th, 2025

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Good morning, and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up.

In today’s edition:

  • As the dust settles on the 2025 CrossFit Open leaderboard, we take stock of the men’s division as we move into the middle stage of the Games season.

  • Want to adjust your training for a specific goal, such as a marathon or a HYROX race? Check out the tips below to get started.

  • With the Open coming to a close, it’s time to look ahead at who’s in for Semifinals and who isn’t.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Once I'm done competing, I'll give back to the community, train them, and keep teaching them what I’ve been taught.” - Arielle Loewen on the importance of community and her drive to give back.

CROSSFIT GAMES

Credit: Sara Ines Chew

2025 Men’s Division CrossFit Open Recap: Colten Mertens Wins With Impressive Performance

The 2025 CrossFit Open has come to a close after an exciting three weeks. The men’s division was full of friendly and fierce competition between some of the best in the sport, with CrossFit Games athlete Colten Mertens coming out on top. 

Remind me: For three weeks, athletes in the community and across the globe took on Open Workouts 25.1, 25.2, and 25.3. Each workout presented different challenges and offered athletes three chances to see how they stacked up. 

Mertens absolutely dominated the men’s division, winning both 25.1 and 25.2 and finishing 25.3 in second place.

After narrowly missing out on qualifying for the 2023 Games, Mertens looks like he is out for vengeance, as he aggressively took on each workout week after week with blistering times. 

  • Mertens was such a force that his total score for 25.1 wasn’t even on the scorecard. The scorecard stopped at 10 rounds, but Mertens proceeded to complete round 10 and get 11 reps into round 11. He finished with the winning score of 361 reps. 

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SPEED READS

🌎🥇 WFP Challenger Online Qualifier I Scores Due: The first Challenger Qualifier for the World Fitness Project Tour ends today. Remember to submit your results before 8 p.m. CDT (UTC-5).

  • The second episode of Signed, the WFP’s video series highlighting their Pro Card holders, just dropped. It features Victor Hoffer, Pat Vellner, Emma Lawson, and Aimee Cringle.

😎 🏆 TYR WZA Socal Dates Announced: TYR Wodapalooza is back in action and coming to Huntington Beach on September 19-21, 2025, for the second annual TYR WZA SoCal.

📆 🏋️ 2025 CrossFit Games Semifinals/Qualifying Events: The CrossFit Open is done and dusted. Now, we move on to the middle stage of the season and a mix of in-affiliate and in-person events. Here’s a month-by-month schedule to keep you in the loop, courtesy of Fran Lung Analytics.

😎 🏆 TYR Sport, Relentless in the Pursuit: In case you missed it, TYR Sport, the title sponsor of TYR Wodapalooza and TYR WZA SoCal, has begun a new weekly video series profiling their sponsored athletes’ 2025 season. The third and most recent episode features 2023 Fittest Man, Jeff Adler.

ICYMI: Just before the Open started, footwear and apparel giant Adidas hosted nine of their sponsored CrossFit athletes for a week-long training camp, or “Primer,” at its HQ in Germany. Check out our behind-the-scenes look here.

MEMBER EXCLUSIVE

Credit: @benbergeron / Instagram

How to Tweak Your Training for Specific Goals

You've been consistent with your training for months now. You've built a solid foundation of fitness following a simple, effective routine.

But now you're eyeing a new challenge—perhaps completing your first marathon, competing in a Hyrox event, or simply shedding those last stubborn pounds.

How do you adapt your current program without overcomplicating things or losing the consistency that got you here? We broke it down in a recent episode of Chasing Excellence.

Here are some of the important details:

The Training Principles You Need to Know

Before diving into specific goals, let's understand two fundamental training principles that will guide any program adjustments:

  1. SAID Principle (Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands): If you want to excel at something specific, you need to train that specific thing. Sounds obvious, but many people miss this. If you want to be a great hockey player but never put on skates, no amount of gym work will make you a great skater.

  2. Overload Principle: Make your training more challenging than the actual event. Place stress and demands on your body that force it to adapt and evolve beyond what's required on game day.

CROSSFIT GAMES

Credit: @ironandcastle / Instagram

Who is Moving On to In-Affiliate Semifinals and In-Person Qualifiers, and Who Isn’t?

The 2025 CrossFit Games season is well underway, and as we close the book on this year’s Open, we’re getting a clearer picture of who is still in the chase to become the Fittest on Earth.

Rule 2.01 in the 2025 CrossFit Games Season Rulebook notes that after the Open concludes: “The top 1% (or a minimum of 1,200 athletes) in the Individual men and women divisions [based on worldwide ranking] will qualify to participate in Semifinals.”

  • It’s important to note that the “top 1%” will be taken based on the number of athletes registered for the Individual Division at the close of 25.1.

Because neither division cleared the minimum threshold (although the men were very close), 1,200 men and 1,200 women are eligible to compete in the next stage.  

For those athletes, there are two paths to the CrossFit Games: an In-Affiliate (virtual) Semifinal, run by CrossFit, and 10 In-Person Qualifying Events, run by outside organizers.

What You Need to Know

  • 65.79% of men and 70% of women from the 2024 CrossFit Games are qualified for the second stage of the 2025 Games season. 

  • Notable athletes who aren’t moving on include Michelle Basnett, Alessandra Pichelli, Guilherme Malheiros, and Sean Sweeney.

  • In both the men’s and women’s fields, nearly half of the athletes who are moving on are from North America.

HIGHLIGHTS

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