“Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”- Warren Buffet
CROSSFIT GAMES
Yeehaw! Castro, CrossFit Visit Dallas as Potential Games Location
As the Rogue Invitational was wrapping up in Austin, Texas, representatives from CrossFit, including Dave Castro, were planning a visit about 200 miles North, to Dallas. Their intent? Evaluate the city as a potential host for the 2023 CrossFit Games and beyond.
One big thing: With a population of more than 7 million, the Dallas-Forth Worth metropolitan area is the largest host city we know of courting the CrossFit Games. A key question will be: After years of enjoying the small-town takeover feel Madison has provided, are the CrossFit Games ready to return to a major metropolitan area?
CrossFit has been very hush hush about future CrossFit Games sites, but Morning Chalk Up has been able to suss out that Austin, Denver, Madison (the current host city) and now Dallas have all filled out the RFP.
Inside the visit: Contract negotiations for potential host cities were supposed to begin on November 15, but representatives from CrossFit were touring Dallas that afternoon.
“We explored the entire place out at Fair Park with the representatives from CrossFit,” Monica Paul, the Executive Director of the Dallas Sports Commission said.
The city filled out an RFP earlier this year but has inquired about becoming a host city for the Games for the last two years.
The Sports Commision sent a representative to Madison this summer to observe the CrossFit Games to help build their proposal when selling HQ on Dallas.
“They couldn’t give us much feedback since there are still multiple cities they’re taking a look at for this next round of RFP’s but I hope they saw the connectivity and how they can adapt certain things at the iconic Cotton Bowl venue,” explained Paul.
By the numbers: To put things into perspective, Dallas’ proposed venue — Fair Park — versus the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, would be a 68.9% increase in acreage.
The Alliant Energy Center: 164 acres.
Alliant Energy Center Coliseum: seats 10,231.
Dallas Fair Park: 277 acres.
Dallas Fair Park Coliseum: seats 8,513.
Dallas Fair Park Cotton Bowl Stadium: seats 92,100.
Although the Fair Park Coliseum holds fewer spectators, Cotton Bowl Stadium has the biggest potential for selling seats as one of the largest stadiums in the country. The stadium alone would be a more than 800% increase in potential spectators when you compare Madison’s Coliseum to Dallas’ Cotton Bowl Stadium.
Important to note: In CrossFit’s RFP guidelines, the venue must include two primary venues that can both seat at least 15,000 people. While the Cotton Bowl Stadium blows that standard out of the water, the Coliseum falls short, however, so does the current center in Madison, WI.
Going deeper: Aside from having two major indoor and outdoor facilities for competition, the site also has significant opportunities for spectator experience and entertainment. Some of the venues include the Dallas children’s aquarium, a music hall and a creative arts building.
“Our central location and the fact that we’re a major city with easy access for those who are driving or flying is key. We’re proposing Fair Park Campus which I think lends itself to being adaptable and even be reimagined for some things and allow CrossFit to add additional things with the indoor and outdoor components,” Paul continued.
Fair Park has hosted several major events including the annual State Fair, 4th of July Celebrations, the NHL Winter Classic and was even home to the Dallas Cowboys in the 60’s.
“We’ve had numerous inquiries throughout the years, not just over the past two years that we’ve been looking at this opportunity, CrossFit has always come up as something that people within our community approach us about that we really need to try to secure this for Dallas. There’s no doubt that we’re excited,” concluded Paul.
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😳❄️🥶 Athletes competing at the Dubai CrossFit Championship will complete at least one event inside Ski Dubai, an indoor ski and snowboard arena. There also will be penguins present.
After a few withdrawals, the roster has shifted a little. Here’s a complete up-to-date list of who’s competing.
Melina Rodriguez, two-time individual Games athlete, signed onto team Mayhem, the fifth athlete added since the 2021 Games.
New additions: Guilherme Malheiros, Lazar Dukic, Agustin Richelme and Piero Gorichon.
Female CrossFitter and over 50? “CrossFit Lady” is a new podcast hosted by Leda Peterson specifically for female athletes over the age of 50 to discuss CrossFit for longevity and a light-hearted pep-talk that we all need sometimes.
Elijah Muhammad joins Tru Grit Fitness as their first sponsored athlete.
Muhammad: “I tried out a few Tru Grit products and tried to break them – but I couldn’t do it. I’m a huge barbell person and was so impressed with the phenomenal spin and immediate responsive feedback you receive; their products are unmatched. But that isn’t what sold me on this partnership – it was their genuine interest in helping to support and promote the mission of Project Onyx and the kids our foundation reaches.”
Registration is now open for the next CrossFit Health webinar: “Skeletal Muscle and Health,” which takes place on Thursday, December 9, at 3:00 PM PT.
COMPETITION
MEMBER EXCLUSIVE
Four Athletes Everyone Should be Excited to See Compete at the Dubai CrossFit Championship
The 2021 Dubai CrossFit Championship is now just two weeks away when twenty men and twenty women square off in Dubai, U.A.E. for another major earning opportunity as well as pre-season bragging rights. And while there are great storylines for many of them, there are four athletes in particular (two men and two-point-five women) that everyone should be excited to see compete.
The fact that he can’t get into the United States for the CrossFit Games is becoming more and more of an issue as he builds his resume dominating competition across Europe and Asia. In 2021 alone, he has racked up wins at:
Butcher’s Lab teams of two men with Alexander Ilin
CrossFit Quarterfinals athlete Alizee Andreani recently posted a video completing 101 unbroken toes-to-bar, which would break the current posted record on Beyond the Whiteboard (btwb; login required to view), a longstanding online platform tracking worldwide performance on a myriad of workouts, lifts and feats of strength. The previous record on btwb of 100 unbroken reps was set by Kristen Bennett back in 2018. The current men’s record is 156 reps by Benjamin Dameron set in 2016.
One big thing: Feats of strength like this are often irrelevant to an athlete’s overall performance in competitive CrossFit for a number of reasons: 1). CrossFit generally awards generalists over specialists, and 2). rarely is an athlete ever asked to complete more than 50-100 reps of a specific gymnastic movement where an unbroken set would prove advantageous.
To put this in perspective: According to btwb, 50 unbroken reps for women would put you in the 99th percentile worldwide. The effort also took a total of 2 minutes and 30 seconds, which alone is considerably longer than most athletes could static hold from a bar.
The average logged score (out of 11,239 logged scores on btwb) sits at 13.4 for women, and 21.7 for men.
Data from 7,748 btwb athletes with logged scores shows leaderboard toppers of 100 reps for women, and 156 reps for men with a drastic decline down to 150, 122, 109, 105, and 100 respectively.
Why it matters: Breaking new fitness barriers continue to show what’s possible at the upper spectrum of the sport. As long as there is competitive CrossFit, max effort attempts like this will continue to be set and broken.
Rogue has recently expanded their record breaker series, including tests like max deadlifts in two minutes and introduced frequent online challenges like fastest time to complete 50 cals on an Echo Bike.
As part of the 2017 launch of Reebok Nano 7, Maddie Sturt and Camille Leblanc-Bazinet each completed 41 toes-to-bar in one minute for Guinness World Records that remain today.
Michael Richie holds the men’s record from the same event after completing 49 reps.
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