The adaptive divisions within the CrossFit Games season is in its early stages. Starting with an exhibition format in 2021, the adaptive divisions turned into a formal competition in 2022. But after its first truly competitive season, CrossFit received complaints from athletes that several fellow competitors had misrepresented this disability.
This past offseason CrossFit updated its adaptive athlete policy. The most notable change was the switch from a Neuromuscular division to a Multi-Extremity division. It also created the most confusion and frustration among those athletes.
That was especially the case for athletes who were able to compete last year, but this year were excluded because their disability was not visible enough to pass the new criteria to qualify for the Multi-Extremity division. Ben Fallon, an adaptive athlete, even wrote an open letter to CrossFit sharing this concerns about the new policy in place this year.
Without knowing what else to do, many athletes no longer able to compete this year have taken to social media voicing their concerns about the changes. Most, while frustrated that they can no longer compete, just want more transparency around the decisions being made.
“I just want to know the [credentials of] who was in charge of setting these requirements and what their knowledge was founded on,” said Krista Davidson when speaking on the need for transparency around the members of the Adaptive Competition Eligibility Board, also known as ACEB.
Now, just over a month since the 2023 CrossFit Open concluded, and the only stage before the CrossFit Games for the adaptive divisions, CrossFit published an article titled, Adaptive Eligibility Update for the 2023 Games Season in which they “address some of the concerns [they’ve] heard regarding classification and eligibility requirements” this season.
The article begins by outlining the history of the CrossFit Games adaptive division and mentions the change to the Multi-Extremity division. They do acknowledge that there are athletes who now do not qualify within an adaptive division because of the changes, a departure from the stance CrossFit’s leadership has taken in the previous months. CrossFit continues by saying they were not able to create a new division in 2023 because of “resource constraints”.
In an audio recording shared with The Barbell Spin, a CrossFit representative associated with the adaptive division was heard saying that the new policies in place this year were intended to make improvements within the adaptive division, but that they might have had the opposite effect.
However, CrossFit states in the article on the Games site that no changes will be made to the Adaptive Athlete Policy in 2023 nor will any classification decisions be reversed. CrossFit concludes by saying they will evaluate the adaptive division policies following the 2023 season.
