Last week, Will Moorad, Director of Sport for the World Fitness Project (WFP), met with Lauren Smith, Seth Page, and Tommy Marquez to review Tour Stop II Mesa and discuss questions about the upcoming Finals, which are scheduled for December in Copenhagen, Denmark.

• Moorad discussed various topics, including programming at the Finals, potential tournament formats in 2026, and even issues related to media narratives.

Key Takeaways:

• The Finals will feature a swim event and a long-duration event, likely “Project 1,” which WFP describes as their “signature hybrid competition” and has been designed for the communities in Indianapolis and Mesa.
• The WFP team is actively negotiating with existing competition organizers to have third-party events award WFP season tour points.
• Age groups and four-person teams will be more closely integrated into the 2026 season.
• There will be three to four Tour Stops plus the Final in 2026, where points from the top three finishes, along with points from possible outside competitions, contribute to qualifying for the WFP Finals.
• Moorad says, “There’s no truth to any of the exclusivity stuff. I think that there’s been a little bit of smear campaigns going on, if you ask me.”

2025 World Fitness Finals Details

Ninety percent of the programming for the Finals is complete. 

• Moorad said he is now only making “small tweaks” after reflecting on Tour Stop II.

He mentioned that swimming will take place at the Finals and added that there will be a focus on expanding the scope of programming at the Finals and evolving further with Tour I in 2026. This could include cycling or even HYROX or Ironman-style events.

• This also includes Project 1, which will likely occur at the Finals in Copenhagen, Denmark. 

Project 1 has been a community-focused hybrid event combining rounds of 800-meter runs with machines, sandbag carries, and other functional movements in between. 

It might be the “longer duration event” Moorad mentioned at the Finals. The time cap for the community version of Project 1 is 55 minutes. 

2026 Season Possibilities

Pro and Challenger Field Sizes

In the video, Moorad said, “Next year it’ll look a little bit different and the fields will be a little bit bigger in the Pro division, and the Challenger events will be completely separate from the Pro events.” 

Remind me: Right now, both Pros and Challengers compete at the same Tour Stops but in separate divisions. 

• The Pro field includes 30 athletes, each for men and women, made up of the 20 Pros (contracted athletes) and the top 10 Challengers from the online qualifier. The next 20 Challengers from the online qualifier competed in the Challenger division.

The setup is expected to change next season, with Challenger Series events and Pro division Tour Stops separated, and a larger Pro field of up to 30 athletes. 

Moorad did not specify how many Pros would be in the 2026 season, nor did he explain the qualifying process for the Pro Tour stops.

• Expanding the Pro field provides “more parity on the leaderboard” and gives athletes more opportunity to “approach this as a professional career,” he said. 

Moorad said it’s also a big deal for brands. He used Adidas athlete Ty Jenkins as an example to show that brands can count on their athletes competing against other top athletes in the sport multiple times a year. 

• This is different from Invitational and Qualifier-only events like the Rogue Invitational and the CrossFit Games, where brands might invest in athletes who do not qualify or are not invited to compete and represent the brand.

New Challenger Points Opportunities

Moorad mentioned that the WFP will introduce “Challenger Series” events in 2026 that will award Challenger points. This new series will provide Challenger athletes worldwide with more opportunities to earn points for a spot on the Pro Tour.

Remind me: Challengers can currently earn between 155 and 250 points based on their placement, from 20th to first, only at WFP Tour Stop events.

Non-World Fitness Project Competitions in the Mix

Moorad said the WFP is in active talks with “a couple of the big events” to serve as partner competitions for WFP Pros, Challengers, Teams, and Age-Group athletes.

• The plan, as laid out, is to assign points to athletes competing at those events and incorporate these non-WFP Tour Stop events into the overall Pro Tour. 

Moorad then described the high-level criteria that partner competitions must satisfy to qualify for inclusion in the Pro Tour.

• The criteria Moorad listed includes alignment on the movement list and standards, drug testing requirements, the number of workouts during the competition weekend, and the divisions that those competitions serve, ensuring they match the competition requirements of the WFP.

These non-WFP competitions, along with three to four Tour Stops and the 2026 Finals, will be announced as part of the World Fitness Project’s 2026 season calendar.

More Athlete Flexibility for 2026 Season

For the 2026 season, Moorad laid out a scenario in which athletes may not be required to attend all WFP Tour Stop events in order to generate the points needed to qualify for the Finals.

• “Say we were to have four tour events and a final, or three tour events and a final, and then we’d have Challenger Series events that are also partnered with the season. The plan right now is to say, ‘Hey, if there are that many opportunities, we’ll take the athletes’ top three point earning performances, and the points that they accrue from those top three will be what places them in the top 30 or 40 to go to the Finals,” he said. 

This doesn’t mean that athletes can’t do more if they choose. Moorad added that athletes could still compete as much as they want. 

• “You have as much opportunity to earn money and deliverables for your brands or whatever you need to do from an appearance standpoint, but we’ll take, as a WFP, the top three point earning performances, and that will be the way athletes qualify into the Finals,” he continued. 

This flexibility would allow athletes like Jeff Adler, Alex Gazan, Haley Adams, and Emma McQuaid to have more options to continue competing in the Tour season and partner competitions to earn points if they are injured and unable to participate in one or more Tour Stop events.

EMBED: https://www.instagram.com/p/DOElT3pksbq/

Rumors of Exclusivity and “False” Media Narratives

Moorad took the opportunity to address a rumor that has been widely and frequently discussed across various CrossFit media outlets.

• “There’s no truth to any of the exclusivity stuff,” he said, referring to the idea that future WFP contracts would require athletes to compete exclusively in the WFP. “I think that there’s been a little bit of smear campaigns going on if you ask me,” he continued.

Moorad complimented all the competitions outside of the WFP season, highlighting what makes each of them great, including the CrossFit Games, Wodapalooza, and Rogue Invitational. He then reiterated that “It’s important [that the WFP season] not take away those opportunities…so [the exclusivity rumor] is a lie.”

Moorad took his comments further, addressing what he called “false narratives” in the media.

• “Just as far as a lot of the false narratives that are put out there…by the media or whoever, I think it’s important that people know…that’s tabloid media or whatever you want to call it. It is their job to create false narratives,” he said.

For Moorad, the harm runs deeper than headlines. “It’s unfortunate because it’s not just me. It’s not just our team. It’s not just the athletes that they’re impacting,” he explained. “It’s not their job to consider how it impacts the company…or the athletes that they might be trashing. It’s their job to just get clickbait.”

• Shifting his focus, he turned his remarks to the athletes and to his own organization, “It’s our job as athletes, as a business, as media for WFP to just continue to do our job.”

To athletes facing public criticism, Moorad said, “I think it’s just important for anybody that’s had to deal with that BS…to understand what you stand on. As athletes, you’re trying to do something that you’re passionate about and that you love, and it’s not always going to be easy.”

About the WFP itself, he said, “When you’re trying to create something great that may be considered disruptive by some — we think it’s additive, personally and as an organization — I think it’s important to just keep the people around you that are supportive.”

• And finally, he concluded with his most strongly-worded statement, “Don’t believe everything you hear because a lot of those people might not even believe what they’re saying. And then if people are talking shit, it’s probably because you’re doing something right.”

Featured image: World Fitness Project