CrossFit Games

CrossFit Games to Remain in Madison Through 2023

May 5, 2022 by
Photo Credit: CrossFit LLC
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Editor’s note: The story has been updated to include additional clarification from CrossFit on the RFP process.

CrossFit’s general manager of Sport Justin Bergh announced the CrossFit Games will extend their partnership with Madison another year through 2023, making the Badger State host for six total Games. This will be the final extension according to CrossFit and the Games will move to a new host city in 2024.

One big thing: Bergh teased CrossFit will consider an international host city for the 2024 Games.

  • Bergh: “That also allows us to widen our aperture a little bit, seriously consider what non-U.S. offerings could look like before we make the decision for 2024.”
  • The RFP process is not restarting according to Bergh, but he didn’t indicate if new cities would be invited to submit bids.
  • “We have decided to focus on a relocation in 2024 and extended our timeline to conclude the process. We have some excellent candidates under consideration and do not plan to re-start the RFP process. Changing the venues for the finals has a lot of moving parts, and we wanted to give our team and the eventual host city the time needed to prepare to host the competition, welcome our community and maximize the media coverage. That’s why we decided to provide some clarity to the community on the Games continuing in Madison through 2023, as we plan the next evolution of the Games in 2024.”

The big picture: The announcement didn’t come as much of a surprise given the unique challenges of moving the Games to another host city coupled with a recent change in leadership on the Games team.

  • Staying in Madison allows the new leadership team two Games at a familiar location before making any changes.
  • The process of moving the Games to a new location is extensive and starts more than a year and a half in advance.
  • As we already pointed out, two years ago, the city cleared the Games to use the boat launch through 2023, making any hurdles even easier to overcome.

Staying in Madison is “also really going to enable our teams to focus in on this year and next year as we lay out the season format that we feel comfortable with for 2023 and beyond,” said Bergh at the press conference.

  • “The planning process for our team has been focused on executing this season exactly as published then collecting feedback from athletes, event organizers, and partners so that we can make the right changes for next year’s season and announce those details hopefully by the beginning of the fourth quarter of this year, so that athletes, event organizers, partners all have time to plan accordingly.”

One more thing: The CrossFit Games team will be considering changes for the 2023 season format and hope to communicate those changes by this October.

Previous Games Host Cities:

  • Aromas, CA: 2007-2009, and 2020
  • Carson, CA: 2010 – 2016
  • Madison, WI: 2017 – 2023*
    • In 2020, the Games was moved to Aromas, CA due to the global pandemic.

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