A Brief History of CrossFit Games Cuts
Competition director Adrian Bozman announced the return of cuts to the 2022 NOBULL CrossFit Games, a move which has spurred more debates as to whether cuts are necessary, or even fair in the modern Games era. This year, the field will be trimmed from 40 individuals and 38 teams down to 30 individuals and 20 teams at the conclusion of Saturday’s events.
One big thing: Cuts are actually much more common than not at the CrossFit Games. In ten out of 16 Games (62.5%) there have been cuts, and the most common cut is to a final field of 30, which has occurred three times.
Remind me: The CrossFit Games started to cut the field in 2009 at its original home in Aromas, CA, and for many years they weren’t really controversial. In fact, they didn’t really receive much media attention or fan backlash until they were re-instituted in 2019, which introduced extremely deep cuts to cull the field from 141 individual men and 129 women down to just ten.
Cut schedules over the years: Here’s a year-by-year breakdown of the cuts to reach the final field.
- 2022: Cut to 30
- 2021: Cut to 20
- 2020: Cut to 5 after stage 1
- 2019: Cut to 10
- 2018: No cuts
- 2017: No cuts
- 2016: No cuts
- 2015: No cuts
- 2014: Cut to 30
- 2013: Cut to 30
- 2012: Cut to 12
- 2011: Cut to 12
- 2010: Cut to 16
- 2009: Cut to 16
- 2008: No cuts
- 2007: No cuts
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