Ben Fallon is probably not a name you are familiar with. However, Fallon stood on the podium after finishing in 2nd place at the 2022 CrossFit Games in the Neuromuscular division. This year, however, Fallon does not believe he will be able to compete as his symptoms are not always visually observed.
After several changes to the Neuromuscular division, including a name change to Multi-Extremity, Fallon expects to be on the outside looking in. Fallon has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a chronic autoimmune disease that affects the central nervous system. It is characterized by the destruction of the protective covering of nerve fibers, leading to symptoms such as muscle weakness, difficulty with coordination and balance, vision problems, and chronic pain.
But while diagnosed with the potentially debilitating disease, Fallon has used nutrition and CrossFit to help keep his symptoms at bay. Most of Fallon’s relapses have almost completely stopped, leaving his condition undetectable to the naked eye.
And therein lies the problem. The criteria to compete in the Multi-Extremity division requires an athlete’s disability to be visually observed and, well, Fallon’s succeeded at keeping his symptoms on the sidelines thanks for CrossFit and nutrition.
So while Fallon is submitting his eligibility application this week, he does not anticipate being approved to compete in the Multi-Extremity division this year. But the situation is a tough one though as the Games veteran does agree and support the new adaptive rules. However, he does feel that CrossFit should try to create a new division for those who are now on the outside looking in.
Because of this, Fallon wrote an Open letter to CrossFit giving his perspective of this situation as an athlete who is “suffering [a] from largely invisible degenerative disease.”
In the letter, Fallon shares the various ways neuromuscular athletes struggle with their disease everyday. He asks CrossFit to look into a way to create a division or find a way to include athletes who do have “largely invisible” neurological diseases and asks for those who support his open letter to CrossFit to sign a petition.
The letter and petition can be read and signed here.
The letter is also hosted on neuro23.com, a virtual functional fitness competition for Neuromuscular adaptive athletes who may be ruled ineligible because of this year’s changes. The virtual competition will run simultaneously with the 2023 CrossFit Open schedule and will follow the official Open workouts.
The intent of Neuro23 is to provide “an alternative and additional online competition that you can do in between the official workouts. If you are ruled ineligible, you will at least have a leaderboard to compare yourself to against other adaptive athletes who struggle with similar neuromuscular diseases, damage, or impairments.”
Neuromuscular athletes can sign up for Neuro23 for free on Competition Corner.
As for Fallon, he told us that he intends to do the Multi-Extremity workouts as well as the normal division workouts (scaled or RX, depending on his capabilities) during this year’s CrossFit Open regardless of what CrossFit’s official ruling is on his adaptive application.Â
