Our CrossFit Year in Review, 2024 By the Numbers

December 24th, 2024

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Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up.

In today’s edition:

  • We look back at Morning Chalk Up’s year that was, by the numbers.

  • Are free trials the “pineapple on pizza” of gym ownership? We talked to the owners who love them and those who wish they never existed. Learn more below.

  • Known and Knowable’s Mike Halpin circulated a survey to the top athletes on CrossFit’s Worldwide Rankings, asking about the state of elite, competitive CrossFit. We break down the results below.

Editor’s Note: We will be off for the holidays after today, but we’ll be back on January 2 and ready to rock for the 2025 season!

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I want to compete in person and compare myself to the best. I will go wherever it’s possible to do so, no matter the competition.” - Anonymous Respondent on Known & Knowable’s “Survey of Top Athletes”

INDUSTRY

Credit: Nicky Freymond

By the Numbers: A Morning Chalk Up Year in Review for 2024

The last year has been full of bright moments as well as some extremely heavy ones. As the chief team covering the community and sport of CrossFit, we here at Morning Chalk Up never take our responsibilities lightly. 

We have been honored to keep you informed over the last 12 months by sharing the most important news of the day, whether it’s devastating, inspiring, motivating, educational, or even controversial.

So, to wrap up 2024, we thought we’d give you a little insight into the news we brought you all year long about the stories, athletes, volunteers, heroes, and everything in between within the CrossFit ecosystem.

Our CrossFit Year in Review, by the Numbers

  • Over the year, the Morning Chalk Up sent 266 editions of the free newsletter (as of today) — totaling 19,000,000 emails. 

As you may notice, our newsletter directs readers to BarBend.com, where they can explore storylines and related topics. 

  • You popped over to Barbend.com almost 2 million times this year to read our interviews, profiles, community highlights, and deep dives into the industry.

Bringing you three stories per day is no easy feat, but we have the very best team of writers interviewing athletes, coaches, and professionals in our space and delivering articles on the daily. 

In addition to folks like Ben Bergeron, EC Synkowski, Jason Ackerman, and Jason Fernandez, we brought on contributors like Jared Enderton, John Wooley, Justin Adams of RX Gymnastics Training, and Mike Halpin of Known & Knowable.

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SPEED READS

💪🌟Bella Martin x Mayhem Athlete: Bella Martin, best known in the CrossFit community as a competition emcee, host, and sideline reporter, is the new Athlete Coordinator for Mayhem Athlete.

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

😎🌴 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: 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 here.

MEMBER EXCLUSIVE

Credit: @crossfitravage / Instagram

Are Free Trials Helping or Hurting Your CrossFit Business?

Is a free trial at a CrossFit gym is a bit like pineapple on pizza—a polarizing subject that can lead to heated emotions.

  • In other words, when you ask a group of gym owners whether onboarding new clients via a free class or a free week is a good idea, you can expect to watch the mud-slinging begin.

The bottom line: Free trials have been around at CrossFit affiliates since the early days, and while many have abandoned them for various reasons, others still say they’re a great way to generate business. 

The Proponents 

Those who offer free trials—be it a free class, a free week, or even a full month—say it’s an effective way to get people through the doors and turn them into paying members of the gym.

Avery Jesmer, the owner of CrossFit Ravage in Medford, OR offers a free week and her conversion rate is 93 percent.

  • “Not everyone walks in the door or inquires for the same reason. Some people are looking for belonging or community, others are experienced but want coaching and programming, and some are looking to become well. Giving them time to experience all that your affiliate has to offer will appeal to any of the reasons why they came,” she told Morning Chalk Up in an interview. 

Tino Hildebrandt, the owner of CrossFit Virage in Hamburg, Germany, is another owner who says the free trial works for his business, as conversion isn’t the hard part. Getting people to show up is the hard part, he explained, and free trials make this easier.

Hildebrandt offers a free trial class but also sits down with the prospect for 10 to 15 minutes before the class to chat.

  • “I close 75 percent of all trials this way,” he said.

CROSSFIT GAMES

Credit: @known_knowable / Instagram

25 Percent of Top 200 CrossFit Athletes Say ‘No’ to 2025 CrossFit Games Season in Recent Survey

Since August, athletes throughout the CrossFit world have shared their thoughts on the state of the sport and on the recent announcements and statements made by CrossFit HQ.

In an effort to better understand the mood going into the 2025 CrossFit season, I decided to create two surveys to gather information from the top athletes in the sport.

  • Note: The community survey was public-facing and promoted on my @known_knowable Instagram page and on the @MorningChalkUp Instagram page. There were over 1,000 responses to that survey, and the results will be released soon.

To conduct the athlete survey, I contacted the top 220 men and top 220 women on the CrossFit Games 2024 Worldwide Rankings. 

  • I chose 220 to ultimately generate a list of 200 athletes for outreach (knowing that some would not be reachable via Instagram). I also noted the absence of some athletes who didn’t compete as an individual in the 2024 season and, therefore, were not within the rankings. So, I added all athletes who competed as an individual at the 2023 CrossFit Games to the top 220 ranked athletes.

This gave me a base of 232 women and 221 men, or 453 athletes in total. 

  • Of those 453, I was able to contact 443 athletes via Instagram direct messages. Based on read receipts from Instagram, I can see a “seen” status for 383 athletes. 

There were 266 total survey responses out of 443 messages, or a 60% response rate.

  • Worth noting: 70% of the athletes who “saw” the message on Instagram responded, or 266 out of 383. 

HIGHLIGHTS

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