Tight Race Going into Final Day of Dubai

Good morning and welcome to the weekend edition of the Morning Chalk Up. This is Justin LoFranco, your Editor-in-Chief, to bring you a quick wrap-up of the major news items throughout the week.

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“The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.” — Marcus Aurelius

11:42 PM somewhere over the Pacific in between Russia and Alaska.

Or so the digital map on my monitor tells me.

2019 has been a heck of a year: changes to the Games, changes to our own company, changes (and challenges) to myself personally as I’ve forced myself to grow and learn new things.

There are, innumerable things I’m quite literally unequipped to figure out as a 33-year-old CEO who has no idea what he’s doing 99% of the time. However, on this flight from China back to the U.S. where I land in the good ‘ol US of A for a Whopper-sized 90-minutes before boarding another flight to London then another to Dubai, taking the most circuitous route around the globe known to man, I’m reminded of one very important thing I set out to do when I started Morning Chalk Up: give people a voice. I wanted individuals to feel like they were part of a community alive enough to listen and I wanted to create a company that championed that.

I wrote the newsletter by myself for two and a half years without taking a break, and during that time I received a lot of feedback. LOTS. OF. FEEDBACK. I read every incoming message then, and still today I read a majority of comments that come in. Apparently, spelling is not my strong suit.

But during that time I developed a rule that every reader, regardless of how asinine their message was, we would endeavor to help and respond.

My word of advice to anyone in a position of frequently receiving feedback is this: never take for granted individuals who care enough to comment. “If they’re critiquing they care,” I tell myself. The opposite of love is indifference, and so I value even the smallest interest and investment in how we’re performing as a company. I hold fast to the belief that passionate observers are capable of keeping us accountable and ultimately improving if we’re willing to listen.

This brings us around to me underlying point: I’d love to hear more about how we’re doing and how we can improve. If you can take a couple of minutes and share your feedback in this one question survey, I’d be grateful. I actually read these messages and it helps form new ideas for how we approach content.

If we can ever improve or do better, please feel free to drop me a note at Justin@morningchalkup.com. 

P.S. The newsletter is getting a redesign and I can’t wait to show it to you all very soon.

Justin LoFranco
Founder and CEO

Tommy Marquez gives you a full recap of day 3 of the Dubai CrossFit Championship from the floor of the Duty Free Tennis Stadium. He also gives you a leaderboard break down and what’s in store for the final day of competition.

Heading into the final day of the 2019 Dubai CrossFit Championship, the state of play is anything but certain. More than the overall prize purse, a coveted spot at the 2020 CrossFit Games is up for grabs and all eyes are on the race between Samantha Briggs and Emily Rolfe and Tola Morakinyo and David Shorunke.

The winningest CrossFit Games athlete in history, Rich Froning, was tapped to program the events and tests for the team competition at the 2019 Dubai CrossFit Championship. He shared with Morning Chalk Up’s Tommy Marquez where he got the ideas for the team events and how he tested them.

Travel outside of your home country has challenges, but for many elite athletes competing around the world hoping to make it to the Games, these challenges are compounded by competition. From Visa issues, to travel tips, to finding food you know will fuel your performance, here are some tips from athletes like Jacob Heppner and Harriet Roberts. 

In Chicago, a handful of CrossFitters are changing the way P.E. is taught in Catholic schools. When Allyn Doyle became Vice Principal of St. Sylvester’s, she knew exactly what she wanted to do: Get those students doing CrossFit.

For the second weekend in a row, CrossFitters everywhere are glued to Morning Chalk Up’s YouTube for Sanctional coverage. While you’re waiting for our next recap, check out these highlights from the week. 

1. Tola Morakinyo’s event winning 381 pound clean and jerk.

2. Get a peek Inside Sara Sigmundsdottir’s head just moments after her event 6 win.

3. Sanctionals are super competitive, yes. But last weekend there were pandas.

4. Amanda Hardeman overcame the challenge of moving her whole life across the country and still qualified for several sanctionals. 

5. Alyssa Royse of Rocket CrossFit shares with Patrick Cummings why diversity is good for business.

6. Sadly, CrossFit Games teen athlete Jacob Morris passed away yesterday.