An In-Depth Timeline of CrossFit Riviera’s Disqualification from the CrossFit Games
Catch me up.
Yesterday, we told you that CrossFit Riviera, the team who won the 2018 Meridian Regionals, was disqualified for violating Rule 1.18, which says that “the Licensee of Record (LOR) for an affiliate may not compete on any team other than a team from their own affiliate.”
In plain language, if you’re the Licensee of Record (AKA owner) of an affiliate, you can’t compete on another team unless your affiliate “has no adult members or classes and offers only CrossFit Kids programming, AND the LOR does not train at this affiliate.”
A brief timeline of what happened.
Cynthia Mulhauser is an athlete on Team CrossFit Riviera. She submitted an affiliate application to open CrossFit Overlake on January 2, 2018.
On February 9, 2018, exactly two weeks before the CrossFit Open began, Mulhauser received notice that she was approved for her affiliate.
The next day, on February 10, the CrossFit Overlake Facebook page posted, “It is official CrossFit Overlake in Crissier will open August 2018.” (via Facebook translator).
C'est officiel Crossfit OverLake à Crissier ouvrira dans le courant de Août 2018.
Posted by Crossfit OverLake on Saturday, February 10, 2018
On March 26, at the close of the Open, three athletes had registered, completed and had verified scores for all five events of the 2018 CrossFit Open.
On May 1, CrossFit Overlake began leasing the building which is still under construction. According to one email from CrossFit Riviera explaining the situation, “the ‘registre de commerce’ (official Swiss authority for all business inscriptions) has granted business rights to Overlake Sarl only on May 30th making it legally impossible to operate a business.”
On June 3, CrossFit Riviera, which Cynthia Mulhauser competed with, won the Meridian Regional.
On June 6, CrossFit Riviera team captain Mareck Bigler received an email from CrossFit HQ saying, “It has come to our attention that an athlete who has competed on the CrossFit Riviera team throughout the Open and at the CrossFit Games Meridian Regional last weekend is the Licensee of Record for another CrossFit affiliate. Cynthia Mulhauser is the Licensee of Record for CrossFit OverLake. This is a violation of the CrossFit Games Rules, specifically section 1.18…any athlete listed as an affiliate LOR at the close of the first Open workout may not compete for any team other than one from their own affiliate. We’ve consistently enforced this rule this season. Because of this violation your team will be disqualified.”
Also on June 6, their Facebook page posted an update on the opening of CrossFit Overlake, showing bare floors and boxes of unpacked equipment still on palettes.
under construction
Posted by Crossfit OverLake on Wednesday, June 6, 2018
In a follow-up email with CrossFit HQ, Riviera team captain Mareck Bigler explained:
“While it is true that CrossFit OverLake is not a CrossFit Kids only affiliate, it is also true that CrossFit OverLake has no active members. All athletes mentioned in the email have performed their Open workouts in other CrossFit affiliates and have simply submitted their scores using the CrossFit OverLake affiliation because it was available in the selection of CrossFit affiliates and as a sign of sympathy towards its owners…all of the aforementioned athletes have active membership options at either CrossFit Urakan, CrossFit Leman or CrossFit Riviera, their only training and workout locations.”
On June 12, CrossFit HQ replied back closing the case:
“You were aware that the LOR of an affiliate was not allowed to participate on another team. And you understood the dates in question. The team was surprised that Ms. Mulhauser was quickly approved for her affiliate (which occurred on Feb 9), but you had over two weeks to adjust your team roster to satisfy the requirements and compete with an eligible team. While it may not have been your intention to violate the rules in January, we cannot run run a worldwide competition based on intent. We must have certain objective rules, and apply them consistently.”
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