Are the CrossFit Semifinals Appropriate Qualifiers for the Games?
In the recent trailer for the newest CrossFit Games documentary, The Fittest on Earth: Next Gen, there were two notable quotes that inspired this study:
- Adrian Bozman: “How can we throw this many events at people and still allow them to recover enough to really put their best foot forward?”
- Sean Woodland: “You cannot part-time this. You have to dedicate your life to it; and even that may not be enough.”
We’ll start with the second one, which is an interesting statement. It certainly seems as if it should be a true statement, and yet we saw many athletes who are not full-time athletes qualify yet again for the CrossFit Games coming through the Semifinal format. A few notable examples are:
- Emily Rolfe— a full-time diagnostic radiographer and now three-time CrossFit Games athlete.
- Elisa Fuliano— a full-time digital designer who spends her work days sitting at a computer, and doesn’t train until at least 6 pm on those nights.
The significant thing about these two athletes is that Rolfe has now qualified for three of the last four CrossFit Games despite maintaining her job, while Fuliano just proved that you can qualify for the Games as a rookie (and beat full-time athletes like Katrin Davdisdottir in doing so) despite having a full time job.
As for the quote from Bozman, this is without a doubt a critical component of the CrossFit Games, and as such should be tested in the qualifying process. And that leads us into the analytical part of this study.
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