How Fit Do You Need to Be to Qualify for Regionals?

This is part 2 in our statistical breakdown of the CrossFit Open. You can read part 1 here.

Statistically speaking…

The short answer: you have to be pretty damn fit.

We often hear the “top 1%” stat thrown around. Turns out, it’s lower than that. There are 720 individual athletes across nine regions. With 307,540 athletes completing all six WODs (both RX and scaled) it’s more like 0.2%.

If you want to get really technical, since only athletes completing WODs RX are eligible, it’s more like 0.4%. So let’s just settle on the top 1/2 percent.

OK, but put that in terms of actual fitness.

See Figures 1 and 2 below, where we’ve charted the average performance on each WOD across the 18 regions so you can see how you stack up.

The bottom line: the average finish in every region on every workout is in the top 100 regionally, male and female. Many are in the top 50.

Consistency is key. You can have an Ok WOD, and if you’re Josh Bridges you can have one bad WOD like his 337th place finish on 18.2a, but unless you plan on getting top 10 on every other workout you won’t make it, like Dakota Rager.

What about them old people?

Competing for the title of Fittest on Earth is a young person’s game, but it’s not as young as you might think.

The average age of a male qualifier from both the Canada East and Mid Atlantic Regions is 26-years-old, which is the youngest. The oldest average is 29 in the West Region.

For the women, the youngest regions are Asia, Europe North and South Central, which all tied at 27-years-old. The oldest was 31 in the West Region. As you can see though, only four years age difference separates all the region and non are under 25.

As far as the true masters are concerned, 36 Masters athletes qualified for Regionals — 8 men and 28 women. Eight female athletes were in the top 100 worldwide.

FUN FACT: The oldest qualifier is 42-year-old Helen Harding from the Australasia Region. The oldest male is 38-year-old Alexandre Jolivet from the South West Region.

Fig. 1: Average Female Performances

A region by region analysis of how the qualifying athletes performed on average across the six scored events.

Fig. 2: Average Male Performance

A region by region analysis of how the qualifying athletes performed on average across the six scored events.