After qualifying for the CrossFit Games the past two seasons, Christine Kolenbrander will not be competing in the 2024 CrossFit Games season. Kolenbrander, who has been dealing with a lingering back injury, shared that she would sit out this season on Instagram last night.
According to Kolenbrander, her back has been injured for years, but it wasn’t well known until after this year’s Semifinals when she underwent a Platelet-Rich Plasma procedure, or PRP for short, in an attempt to heal her back. At the time, Christine joined our YouTube show to discuss her back injury and her path to competing at the 2024 CrossFit Games.
Fast forward to the Games and Kolenbrander would end up finishing 22nd overall, five spots better than her rookie year in 2022.
However, her back was still not okay and competing at the Rogue Invitational a few months later just exacerbated the injury. An MRI diagnosed Kolenbrander with a slew of back problems – shifted vertebrae, central canal stenosis, multiple bulging discs and multiple discs that are “dried up”.
While Kolenbrander has been hoping that the pain would reside, it hasn’t. So she made the difficult decision to sit out the 2024 CrossFit Games season to deal with her back. This morning Christine will have a stem cell procedure done followed by more PRP in May.
Kolenbrander competes out of the North America West region and is currently ranked 17th in the CrossFit Games Worldwide Rankings. Her departure opens up a spot to the Games from the North America West Semifinal, however, it could impact the number of qualifying spots allocated to the CrossFit Games.
