Competition

For the Love of the Game: Long Island Couple Pilots Competition Series

December 11, 2022 by
Photo Credit: Provided by Kelly and Sam Krivit
Enjoying Morning Chalk Up? Access additional exclusive interviews, analyses, and stories with an Rx membership.

Putting on a competition isn’t for the faint of heart. Long months of planning, assembling volunteers, pulling together little details, writing workouts, recruiting interest, the list goes on. If you’re not leading a big training camp or are a household gym, what’s the appeal?

For Kelly and Sam Krivit, “it sounded like something fun to do, something fun we could do together,” Sam said. 

As a preschool special education teacher and Physician’s Assistant, the Long Island based duo simply love CrossFit, and felt they could assemble a throwdown series that serves the community across various affiliates. As enthusiasts with no real competition planning experience, their first event was in September 2021, in conjunction with helping their friends launch RXFit, in Rocky Point, NY. According to Sam, “it was super successful…we had three workouts going at a time. It was an individual event, we had 100 athletes, and it went great.”

From there, the spark was lit and the dream began to grow — known as Fight for the Fittest. The events are held in other affiliates (given that the Kriviti’s don’t own one), and aren’t related to any particular camp, gym or brand. Kelly, who is self-proclaimed OCD, has some background in event planning, assisting with causes like AMRAP for Autism, and pulled on that experience to set themselves up for success. Additionally, Sam has volunteered at events like Regionals and competed locally and in the Open since 2016. 

“At first it was just run one competition and have fun, and then do a second one because it was so much fun. And then we looked at it as, if we want to continue to do this because we are enjoying it, we have to run it like a business. The only way we can be sustainable is if we are profitable. Profitable is kind of a subjective word because the amount of hours that we put into it, we make minimum wage. But we don’t lose money — that’s the main thing,” Sam said. “If we didn’t enjoy this, we would not do it. The labor of love, the amount of hours of stress, I get more stress from this than my real job. And I do spine surgery for a living, so it’s definitely not for the revenue.”

Kelly continued: “I think a lot of it that keeps us going is the relationships and the people.” 

Utilizing the power of this community, the couple has chatted with numerous other event organizers of various sizes to gain advice and wisdom regarding scaling to a multi-day event and creating a larger impact in a way that doesn’t break the bank.

“The goal is to run a quality event, so I don’t think that we’ll ever push ourselves past what we’re capable of and sacrifice the quality to make a bigger event, or to make more money, or whatever it may be,” Sam explained. 

For more on Fight for the Fittest events, stay up to date via their Instagram (@fightforthefittest). The next event, the partner finals, is January 28, 2023 at Christian Harris’ gym, MFLH Training in New York. With plans for individual, partner and team competitions on deck, stay tuned for the opportunity to support like-minded individuals and showcase your fitness.

Get the Newsletter

For a daily digest of all things CrossFit. Community, Competitions, Athletes, Tips, Recipes, Deals and more.

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.