2024 Dubai Fitness Championship Preview

December 5th, 2024

Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up.

In today’s edition:

  • The 2024 Dubai Fitness Championship kicks off this week as 30 men and women will throw down for one of the top prize purses in the sport. Learn more about the roster and get our podium picks below.

  • CrossFit Seminar Staff Flowmaster and CF L-4 Coach, Kristin Bowen shares three critical lessons in providing feedback to coaches and members at your affiliate.

  • An Achilles tendon tear is one of the most dreaded injuries in sports and one that we’ve seen with some regularity in CrossFit. Learn more about what it’s like to experience and rehab this injury through the eyes of some of the elite athletes who have suffered it recently.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I cried out because I knew instantly, but I wasn't in pain. It was a weird sensation, but it didn't hurt, sting, or anything like that. It was just sudden, and I knew exactly.” - Cole Sager on the instant recognition that he had torn his Achilles tendon (a common theme we heard from athletes who have suffered this injury)

COMPETITIONS

Credit: @dxbfitnesschamp / Instagram

2024 Dubai Fitness Championship: Preview

This weekend 30 men and 30 women will descend upon Dubai for the final major competition of the calendar year. 

  • This year the Dubai Fitness Championship moved their invitation process to be nearly entirely based on the online qualifier, so the composition of the field is different than previous years. 

Overall, three men and four women who competed as individuals at the 2024 CrossFit Games will step onto the competition floor in Dubai. In total, there eight men and 11 women who have been to the CrossFit Games as individuals in the field this weekend.

Women’s Division

The battle for the podium will likely come down to five women, three Games veterans, a Games rookie, and a young gun.

Karin Freyova 

Freyova has won back-to-back Dubai Fitness Champions and is the favorite to win her third in a row. 

  • She also had the top finish out of the field in the Semifinals this year after taking fourth in the French Throwdown.

Matilda Garnes 

Garnes was a member of Team Peak 360 and finished third at the CrossFit Games this year. 

  • In her first competition as an individual after the CrossFit Games, she had a dominant victory at the Belgrade Games finishing in the top two in all six events. 

In her last appearance in Dubai, Garnes finished second in 2022.

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SPEED READS

📺 🗣️ Constantly Varied Conversations: In John Wooley’s latest video, the Wooley Memeth himself breaks down some recent controversy in the CrossFit Games media space.

🥦📈CrossFit Nutrition Course Offer Extended: If you missed it on Black Friday/Cyber Monday, the opportunity to grab a free CrossFit Nutrition Course registration when you sign up for an in-person L1 or L2 seminar has been extended through the end of the year. Take advantage now.

🥇🥇A Legend Retires: Two-time CrossFit Games champ Katrin Davidsdottir announced her retirement over the weekend. We will have a full career retrospective later this week, but first, check out this breakdown of Davidsdottir’s career achievements from B.Friendly Fitness.

💪 🙌 Working with Larger Bodies Seminar: Athena Perez and Scaled Nation Training will be delivering the Working with Larger Bodies seminar at CrossFit ELM Turnberry in Commerce City, CO, on Saturday, February 15, 2025. Register now.

😎🌴 2024 TYR WZA Miami Beach Wave 2 Ticket Sales: In case you’ve missed it, tickets for TYR WZA Miami Beach are currently in Wave 2 pricing. Get yours soon and save some $$$.

  • So far, the elite athlete roster includes team “PJ’s” (Jeff Adler, Jayson Hopper, and Pat Vellner), “the Boys” (Noah Ohlsen, Chandler Smith, and Travis Mayer), “the Broadway Girls” (Haley Adams, Brooke Wells, and Sydney Wells), Gui Malheiros, Alexis Raptis, Ricky Garard, Pat Vellner, Dani Speegle, James Sprague, and Arielle Loewen. Many more to come.

ICYMI: Two-Brain Business recently released its State of the Industry Report for 2024 based on data from nearly 9,000 gyms. We break down three takeaways from the report here.

MEMBER EXCLUSIVE

Credit: @besthouroftheirday / Instagram

3 Lessons from CrossFit Seminar Staff Flowmaster Kristin Bowen on Giving Effective Feedback in Your Affiliate

As an affiliate owner, one of your most important roles is to provide guidance and support to your coaches and athletes.

Kristin Bowen, a seasoned CrossFit Flowmaster with nearly 300 seminars under her belt, recently joined the Best Hour of Their Day podcast to share her insights on giving effective feedback.

In our conversation, Kristin offered three key lessons every affiliate owner should take to heart.

Lesson 1: Clear, Actionable Feedback is Kind

One of Kristin's most powerful insights is that "clear is kind, unclear is unkind."

It's essential to be direct and specific when giving feedback, even if it feels uncomfortable.

  • As Kristin points out, "If you're giving these bigger picture feedbacks for how to run the class or how to coach or lecture, but you're not telling them how to do it, you're leaving something out on the table. You're not doing your due diligence and helping them get to that next level."

INDUSTRY

Credit: @gabimiga / Instagram

Returning Stronger: How Elite Athletes Recover From Achilles Tendon Injuries

There was a ton of exciting action on the competition floor at the 2024 Rogue Invitational in Aberdeen, Scotland. 

  • As is often the case at elite athletic events, though, a few high-profile injuries cast a pall over the competition, with one event in particular being the culprit.

Remind Me: Gabriela Migała and Henrik Haapalainen suffered complete Achilles tendon ruptures during the fourth iteration of “The Duel” series. Both injuries happened as the athletes rebounded reps on their jump-overs on the hay bale. 

  • To their credit, the Rogue organizers changed the workout for safety after Haapalainen’s injury, modifying the movement to burpee overs. But for the athletes involved, the damage was done.

Migała posted on social media and sat down with B. Friendly Fitness post-incident, saying she’ll be back stronger than ever. 

Haapalainen echoed this sentiment, saying, “My focus goes into recovering as well as possible and getting back stronger.”

There is no shortage of prominent athletes who have experienced Achilles injuries, ranging from CrossFitters to NBA and NFL players. And while everyone’s recovery is different, there are some similar threads. 

We can look to athletes in other sports for clues on how Migała and Haapalainen could deal with their recovery.

HIGHLIGHTS

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

  • 🎂Happy birthday to coach Paige of Arbor CrossFit in Boise, ID.

  • ICYMI, check out this highlight reel from the Buttery Bros of Katrin Davidsdottir's top five moments.

  • Congratulations to Lauren Smith, who just completed a Hyrox race.

  • Congratulations to Ed Haynes, who just competed at the Asia Fitness Championships - his first in-person competition in over four years.

  • 🔥Check out Raquel of Damanto CrossFit in Costa Rica squat clean 99 kilos/220 pounds. Light weight!