As anticipated, the 2023 CrossFit Games Rulebook has been released. It is the earliest a rulebook has been distributed ahead of an upcoming season. Here is the official rulebook issued by CrossFit. And now…let’s take a look at what’s new in the rulebook this year:
1.08 – OPEN REGISTRATION – REGION SELECTION
As earlier announced, athletes will have to provide information to establish which region they will be competing in. The regions will be based on citizenship. For citizens of the United States and Canada, residency will be the determining factor of whether an athlete competes in the North America East or North America West region. However, the rulebook does not outline a deadline or specific date for determining residency.
1.09 – OPEN REGISTRATION – REGION SELECTION – UNCOMMON SITUATIONS & PETITIONS FOR EXEMPTION
Here is where CrossFit outlines how exemptions will be handled when determining an athlete’s assigned region. Military personnel will compete within the country where they hold citizenship. For U.S. and Canadian military, they will be placed in the North America East region.
Athletes with dual or multiple citizenships will be able to choose which country they represent by the close of the first week of the 2023 CrossFit Open.
Regarding petitions to compete in a region outside their citizenship, exemptions must be filed with CrossFit by February 1, 2023. CrossFit will consider the following situations (and possibly more) when making an exemption:
- Proof of sustained residency. If an athlete has be living in a different country since February 16, 2020, CrossFit may grant an exemption;
- Extreme financial hardship to travel to expected Semifinal;
- Political hardship restricting travel to expected Semifinal;
- Restrictions from attending their expected Semifinal due to immigration or visa status.
Based on the exemptions listed above, it appears that Roman Khrennikov will be granted an exemption to compete in North America East.
1.14 – TEAM ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS
This section confirms the eligibility to compete on a team. The new requirements for team members ultimately boils down to each Open test must be performed in the same physical location as the team’s affiliate.
4.04 – SEMIFINALS INVITATION PROCESS – ELIGIBLE TEAMS
There has been a lot of talk about how many individual athletes will be invited to compete at the Semifinals, but the number of teams competing at each Semifinal has been released.
- North America East: Top 40 teams
- North America West: Top 40 teams
- Europe: Top 40 teams
- Oceania: Top 20 teams
- Asia: Top 20 teams
- South America: Top 20 teams
- Africa: Top 20 teams
4.11 – SEMIFINALS – INDIVIDUALS & TEAMS – ADVANCEMENT
If you were looking for how those extra individual qualifying spots to the Games will be divided, you’re going to be disappointed. That detail is not in the rulebook.
The qualifying spots per regions for teams, however, are laid out.
- North America East: Top 10 teams
- North America West: Top 10 teams
- Europe: Top 10 teams
- Oceania: Top 3 teams
- Asia: Top 2 teams
- South America: Top 2 teams
- Africa: Top team
6.12 – GAMES – APPEALS
The 2023 rulebook goes into detail about what can and cannot be appealed at the Games. Additionally, athletes and teams will receive two appeals. If an athlete/team appeals a decision and “wins” the appeal, they will not be deducted one of their appeals. If they “lose” the appeal, they will lose one appeal from their count.
10.06 – PLACEMENT IN ADAPTIVE DIVISIONS
For adaptive divisions, CrossFit has released a 2023 Adaptive Athlete Policy that goes into much detail surrounding the classification and requirements to participate in one of the adaptive divisions.
There you have it. There are still plenty of questions about the worldwide ranking system and how it will be calculated and used to determine qualification spots for each Semifinal competition, but those are not included in the rulebook. More details on that will be coming later…