BREAKING: Three-Time CrossFit Games Champ David Hippensteel Withdraws from Competition
Eight-time CrossFit Games masters athlete and three-times masters champion David Hippensteel has withdrawn all five of his quarterfinals scores, ending his bid for a ninth trip to the Games. A CrossFit spokesperson and Hippensteel both confirmed the voluntary withdrawal, which came after Hippensteel was notified that penalties were forthcoming.
The big picture: Scrutiny over the quality of athletes’ reps as well as CrossFit HQ’s handling of inaccurate scores has drawn criticism this season, led mostly by Andrew Hiller, who has been regularly posting YouTube videos pointing out no reps from publicly available video score submissions.
- Over the past several weeks, Hiller has gone after Tia-Clair Toomey, Mayhem Freedom, Mal O’Brien, and Dani Speegle among others for failure to meet specified movement standards.
- Hiller has also pointed out videos CrossFit HQ itself has posted showing athletes demonstrating no reps, such as Griffin Roelle’s bench press in the CrossFit Total.
- Most recently, Hiller called for Hippensteel’s event 2 score to be invalidated in a video that has now amassed 23,000 views. Two other videos related to Hippensteel have been viewed a combined 27,000 times.
- CrossFit drew its own fire most recently for allowing invalid shuttle run scores to remain high up on the leaderboard, causing potential ramifications for individual semifinal invites.
The bottom line: Anyone paying attention to the 2022 CrossFit Games season has seen increased scrutiny on both athletes and the CrossFit Games team, signaling a trend towards more accountability and adherence to standards.
Go deeper:
- VIDEO: Inconsistencies with Standards and Penalties From 2022 Quarterfinals
- VIDEO: Anikha Greer Opens Up About Her 2022 Games Season Ending After Score Submission Issue
- Incorrect Shuttle Run Scores Throw Finalized Quarterfinals Leaderboard into Disarray
- VIDEO: CrossFit Responds to Leaderboard Inaccuracies. Does It Resolve the Problem?
- My Take: We Need More Transparency in Rulebook Releases, Here’s How
- Convoluted Quarterfinals-to-Semifinals Path Complicates Potential for Backfill Invitations
- Mallory O’Brien Moved from Atlas to Granite Games Overnight, CrossFit Explains Reasoning
- OPINION: Be Better Judges, You Owe That to the Athletes and Community
- OPINION: Asking Judges to Be Better Isn’t Enough
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