Event 1 of the 2022 Dubai Fitness Championship is 160 flights of stairs up the Burj Khalifa for time. That’s right…athletes will trek up the stairs of the tallest building in the world to kick off this year’s competition. Not only that, but they will be wearing a weight vest. 10kg for the men and 7kg for the women (22 and 15 pounds, respectively).
The announcement was made at the athlete briefing at 6pm local time this evening after keeping details of the workouts under wraps until they hinted at event 1 a couple hours prior.
In the preview, the Crown Prince of Dubai, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum (or as he is popularly known, Fazza) shared that he completed the journey up the 2,909 stairs in just over 37 minutes.
As for the actual event, athletes will not start at the same time. Instead, an athlete will start every two minutes in order to avoid log jams as the athletes make their way up the narrow stairways.
It will also be the only event on Friday, day 1 of the competition. Athletes will reconvene in the Coca-Cola Arena on Saturday afternoon for the remainder of the competition.
But while a 160-story stair climb will be a first for a CrossFit competition, it will not be the first time someone has made their way up the Burj Khalifa. Probably most notably, Will Smith walked up the tallest building…but not for time. Smith completed it in 61 minutes and he looked miserable. Take a look…
