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Coronavirus and the CrossFit Community

 
Morning Chalk Up

March 19
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Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up. Dr. Julie Foucher-Urcuyo has been an ambassador for the sport and community of CrossFit, and she is a physician currently practicing in the United States; she provides a summary of our current reality and issues a call to action to all CrossFitters. And, the Rogue Invitational pushes back its dates, we’ve got a (somewhat) comprehensive list of at-home programming options (more are popping up by the second), and Chad Schroeder breaks down all the preliminary results from the Age Group Online Qualifier. Today:

  • Dr. Foucher-Urcuyo says our moment is now.
  • The Rogue Invitational postpones until June 13-14.
  • All the at-home programming options you can handle.
  • Notable performances in the Age Group Online Qualifier.
  • Episode one of our Jeffrey Adler mini-documentary is live.

What did we miss? Hit us up at [email protected].

 

QUOTE OF THE DAY

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“The measure of a country’s greatness is its ability to retain compassion in times of crisis.”” – Thurgood Marshall

 

Coronavirus and the CrossFit Community: A Call to Action

  Coronavirus and the CrossFit Community: A Call to Action  

By Julie Foucher-Urcuyo, MD, MS

[Editor’s Note: In an effort to highlight Dr. Foucher-Urcuyo’s calls to action, we have placed them at the beginning of this OpEd. Please read the article in its entirety, though, to fully understand the situation we face as a community.]

Calls to Action

Affiliate Owners: Whether mandated or not, I strongly encourage you to close your doors for a period of time. If you do so, continue to employ your trainers to work on projects that will expand offerings for your members – hold video workouts via live stream, create a home workout program, or start a podcast for your community. Yes, taking such action comes with a tremendous amount of uncertainty, but with the information we have right now, I believe it is the right thing to do.  We will get through this together, and CrossFit HQ has already voiced their commitment to support affiliates through these challenging times.

Affiliate Members: Even if you feel well, you may still be acting as an asymptomatic carrier of the virus and you play an important role in containing its exponential spread. Practice social distancing NOW. This means staying at home and not going out other than for essential reasons such as work (if not possible to work from home), medical care, or to restock food and supplies. Practice essential hygiene measures such as washing your hands, avoiding touching your face, and cleaning surfaces. If you are able, please continue paying your affiliate membership. We’re all going to go through financial hardship, but have some compassion for your box owner and trainers and continue to support your community so it can thrive again in person when the time is right. 

CrossFit Games Athletes: The CrossFit community looks to you as role models, and will follow your lead. Please use your platforms to lead by example and encourage social distancing. Consider hosting a free live virtual bodyweight workout that community members can follow along with.

 

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Point/Counterpoint: Two Views From the Medical Field on the Coronavirus

  Point/Counterpoint: Two Views From the Medical Field on the Coronavirus  

Yesterday, we published Dr. Julie Foucher-Urcuyo’s OpEd “Coronavirus and the CrossFit Community: A Call to Action”. In the OpEd, Foucher-Urcuyo argued:

This is an opportunity that we as a CrossFit community have to do the right thing, and lead from the front. Yes, as a group we are more likely to fare well when infected with the coronavirus and be part of the 80% with mild disease…

Take steps now to protect our vulnerable populations, first responders, and health care workers. After all, the more people with chronic disease we save from the coronavirus, the more people we’ll have to welcome into our affiliates with open arms, ready to change their lives so that they, too, can build a buffer against sickness for when the next threat comes along.

On March 17, the CrossFit Email of the Day included a link to an OpEd by Dr. John P.A. Ioannidis, a professor of medicine, epidemiology, population health and biomedical data science at Stanford University entitled “A Fiasco in the Making?: As the Coronavirus Pandemic Takes Hold, we are making Decisions without Reliable Data.” In the article, Dr. Ioannidis took a different approach, arguing:

The current coronavirus disease, Covid-19, has been called a once-in-a-century pandemic. But it may also be a once-in-a-century evidence fiasco.

At a time when everyone needs better information, from disease modelers and governments to people quarantined or just social distancing, we lack reliable evidence on how many people have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 or who continue to become infected. Better information is needed to guide decisions and actions of monumental significance and to monitor their impact…

The data collected so far on how many people are infected and how the epidemic is evolving are utterly unreliable. Given the limited testing to date, some deaths and probably the vast majority of infections due to SARS-CoV-2 are being missed. We don’t know if we are failing to capture infections by a factor of three or 300. Three months after the outbreak emerged, most countries, including the U.S., lack the ability to test a large number of people and no countries have reliable data on the prevalence of the virus in a representative random sample of the general population.

 

Rogue Invitational Announces Change of Dates

  Rogue Invitational Announces Change of Dates  

The prestigious Rogue Invitational became the latest CrossFit Sanctional affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. In an Instagram post on Wednesday morning, organizers announced that they have pushed back the date of their competition to June 13-14.

The bottom line: The Rogue Invitational became the sixth Sanctional to reschedule their event due to the pandemic.

  • Four Sanctionals; the Atlas Games, West Coast Classic, ELFIT CrossFit Championship and Italian Throwdown postponed their events and have yet to select a date to hold their competition.
  • The new Rogue Invitational dates are during the same weekend as the Granite Games in Eagan, Minnesota. This could potentially cause issues for athletes, fans and especially volunteers as they have to choose between the two Sanctionals.
  • Because the Rogue Invitational has already announced their athletes and with one of the largest prize purses, there shouldn’t be too much change in their line-up.
  • The Rogue Invitational and Granite Games competition weekend will be the first time that two Sanctionals will be held at the same time in the same country.
  • Nine Sanctionals now share their competition dates with another Sanctional. The weekend of July 3-5 will be shared by the Mayan Classic, Asia CrossFit Championship and the Down Under CrossFit Championship.
  • The original dates for the Rogue Invitational, May 15-17, made it a three-day competition. The new dates given suggest a possible change to two days of competition.
  • The Madrid CrossFit Championship, May 22-24, is the next scheduled Sanctional that has not announced any changes. With Spain declaring a state of emergency last week and on the verge of announcing a nation-wide lockdown, it wouldn’t be far-fetched to see the event organizers make an announcement soon.

The Morning Chalk Up is continuing to monitor all the changes to the 2020 CrossFit Games calendar and will update them as we get them.

 

A Comprehensive Guide to (Mostly) Free At-Home Workout Programs

  A Comprehensive Guide to (Mostly) Free At-Home Workout Programs  

While CrossFit gyms across the world are closing their doors, gym owners, athletes and programmers are offering at-home solutions for athletes unable to make it into the gym.

Are we missing something? Send us a note here.

Free Resources:

Instagram:

YouTube:

 

Preliminary Age Group Online Qualifier Results: A Review

  Preliminary Age Group Online Qualifier Results: A Review  

The Age Group Online Qualifier (AGOQ) wrapped up on Monday, March 16th. HQ will request workout videos for review from the top 25 men and women in each age division. The review period will be completed by April 13. Just like with the Individuals in the Open, expect scoring adjustments and leaderboard shifting. Age Group athletes currently finding themselves in the 11th, 12th, 13th, or so places should remain ready. After the 2019 AGOQ, there were a total of twelve athletes below the cutline before the video reviews who ended up making the Games due to scoring adjustments or by qualified athletes pulling out for various reasons. 

With that said, let’s review the preliminary leaderboards and resultant historic Age Group records. Note, this analysis is a snapshot of the leaderboard on March 18 with the understanding that qualifiers, point totals, event winners, etc will shift around some before the leaderboard is final on April 13.

Competition numbers for each age division.

  • Participation rate: Just 64% of the 2,400 eligible Masters and 71% of the 800 eligible Teenagers competed in the AGOQ. 2020 was the lowest participation rate ever for the AGOQ, down 21% from the historical participation rates for Masters and down 14% for Teenagers. Obviously the COVID-19 virus pandemic impacted the AGOQ. Some athletes were unable to do the workouts because their gyms were closed. Others may have decided it just was not worth the exposure risk and/or were too busy with more pressing needs, especially the most vulnerable division of 60+ athletes who had the lowest participation rate at 55%.
  • Open placement correlated well with the AGOQ Top 10 for the Masters women and all Teenagers. There was a wider range in some of the Masters men’s divisions.
  • Past Games experience means a lot for Masters by evidence of just 29 Games rookie qualifiers (24% of the field).
 

VIDEO: Proving Grounds: Jeffrey Adler in Dubai — Part 1

  VIDEO: Proving Grounds: Jeffrey Adler in Dubai -- Part 1  
 

THINGS TO…

…TRAIN

Running with Chris Hinshaw and Rory Mckernan

We are all looking for ways to get our fitness in outside and even though most CrossFitters notoriously hate running, it’s probably a good time to log some miles. Chris Hinshaw was the subject matter expert for CrossFit Aerobic Capacity and is a ten-time Ironman competitor and has coached 28 Crossfit Games Champions and 38 Crossfit Games Podium Athletes. He and Rory Mckernan go for a run and offer some tips.

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  Morning Chalk Up  

…WATCH

A Year in a Day – Armen Hammer Recaps the Atlas Games Postponement

Armen Hammer was in Montreal as the decision was made to cancel the Atlas Games last week. Here is his blow-by-blow account.

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…EAT

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HIGHLIGHTS…

 
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3/20 – 3/22: Okanagan Valley Throwdown (Penticton, Canada)
3/21: Pot O’Gold Throwdown (San Antonio, TX)
3/21: GRID 6 SCII (Columbia, SC)
3/21: Slingin Iron “Spring Fling” (Walker, LA)
3/21: WOD FOR OOCH (Toronto, Canada)
3/21: The Cheru Challenge (Denver, CO)
3/21: Battle of the Beast “Shamrock Showdown” a Strongman Event (Hudson, NY)
3/21 – 3/22: Rumble by the River (Columbus, GA)
3/21: All Valley CrossFit Championship (Wildomar, CA)
3/21: All Valley CrossFit Championships (Wildomar, CA)
3/21: Barbells For Bullies Charity WOD : Nashville (Nashville, TN)
3/21 – 3/22: Pensacola Beach Brawl (Pensacola Beach, FL)
3/28: HYROX Los Angeles (Los Angeles, CA)
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3/28: The 615 Theowdown (Nashville, TN)
3/28 – 3/29: Dork-A-Thon at CrossFit Florian (Norwood, MA)
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3/28: HYROX Los Angeles (Los Angeles, CA)
3/28: Rookie Rumble at CrossFit Off the Grid (Williamstown, NJ)
3/28: Muscle Madness (Coppell, TX)
3/28: GOAT – A Youth Fitness Competition (Olyphant, PA)
3/28: CFQ SPRING FLING (Quispamsis, Canada)
3/28: CrossFit Katy Team Classic VI (Katy, TX)
3/28: Thunderdome Throwdown (Northfield, MN)
3/28: H2K’s Gauntlet fight against Duchenne muscular dystrophy (Arden, NC)
3/28: GOAT – A Youth Fitness Competition (Olyphant, PA)
3/28: Bridgetown Throwdown (La Puente, CA)
4/2 – 4/4: Anarchy In The OK (Edmond, OK)
4/3 – 2/4: CFE’s Two Peas in a Pod – Same Gender Partner Competition (Burlington, MA)
4/3: OUTWOD – Octane Crossfit (Phoenix, AZ)
4/4: Battle of the Sexes (Northville, MI)
4/4: AC2 Individual Competition (Flagstaff, AZ)
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4/4 – 4/5: The Tactical Games (San Jon, NM)
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4/4: Rookie Rumble at (Mountainside, NJ)
4/4: Remember a Lift (Southbury, CT)
4/4: Warrior Affiliate League Deuces Wild (Fontana, CA)
4/4: The FORGE Partner Challenge (Plantsville, CT)
4/5: Freehold Spring Lift Off 2020 (Freehold, NJ)
4/5: Cap City Ope (Alexandria, VA)
4/11: Rookie Rumble at River Valley CrossFit (Van Buren, AR)
4/18: Festivus Games (Snyder, TX)
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4/18: Patriot Games (Cincinatti, OH)
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4/18: Heavy Day Morgan Fundraiser (Oak Ridge, TN)
4/18: Rookie Rumble at CrossFit 611 (Southern Pines, NC)
4/18: Arsenal Open (Pittsburgh, PA)
4/18: Patriot Games (Cincinnati, OH)
4/18: Master of The Community: Masters Competition @ Crossfit Decimate (Colorado Springs, CO)
4/18: Tyler’s Voice (Jefferson City, TN)
4/18: One Ton Challenge – EHP CrossFit (Moorhead, MN)
4/18: Festivus Games (Fort Wright, KY)
4/19: HighGear’s Spring Fling (Medina, OH)

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