For the Masters 35-39 age group, the top 40 men and women were to receive an invite to compete at the 2024 Masters CrossFit Games. Following the finalization of the Semifinals leaderboard, qualified athletes had until June 7 to accept or decline their invitation. On June 7, two women in the Masters 35-39 age group had declined their invite – Chyna Cho and Jasmine Sheehan.
According to Section 5.04 of the 2024 CrossFit Games rulebook, “no more than three athletes outside of qualifying position in any division will be eligible for a backfill position” due to athletes declining their invite or a violation of CrossFit’s drug policy. Thus, Alison Stall (T-40th) and Hayley Murillo (T-42nd) received a backfill invite, in which both accepted.
But here is where it gets interesting.
On June 30, Chantal Bouchard received an email from Becky Harsh, CrossFit Athlete Communications Manager, stating that Chantal would be the next athlete to get a backfill spot should another athlete back out of the competition. Harsh then added that the goal is to have a full roster and will backfill any open spots up to two weeks prior to the competition.
Then yesterday, Jamie Hagiya declined her invite due to an injury. So you would expect Bouchard to receive the backfill invite per the email she received from CrossFit a month earlier. However, you would be wrong.
Instead, the backfill invite went to Jasmine Sheehan despite her already declining her invite. Sheehan finished in 8th place in the Age Group Semifinal and was also slated to compete at the CrossFit Games on the CrossFit Somos Mayhem team. But after her teammate, Tyler Lee, failed his drug test, it meant that the other three teammates would not be able to compete at the Games.
And because Sheehan had declined her Masters prior to CrossFit announcing Lee had failed his drug test, Sheehan was on the outside looking in…until she was given the opportunity to backfill Hagiya’s spot.
Last night Sheehan posted on her Instagram stories a screenshot of her backfill invite along with the caption, “PLOT TWIST: after originally declining my individual master’s CrossFit Games invite, it looks like second chances do exist! What a rollercoaster ride this season has been, but I am beyond grateful for this opportunity! Time to get to work”
With Sheehan accepting her invite (she’s on the official Masters CrossFit Games roster), that leaves Bouchard still on the outside looking in. When asked why Sheehan received the backfill invite, Harsh told Bouchard that Sheehan reached out to CrossFit after her team was disqualified to see if there was still a spot for her at the Masters CrossFit Games. Sheehan was told there was not at that time, but following Hagiya’s withdrawal, CrossFit gave the backfill invite back to Sheehan based on her 8th place finish in Semifinals and that “she is rightfully the next athlete in qualifying position to be backfilled.”
So for now, it appears that the Women’s 35-39 age group division for the 2024 Masters CrossFit Games is set with Sheehan back in and Bouchard out.
A request to CrossFit for comment on the situation has not been returned at this time.
