One of the action items coming out the third-party investigation into Lazar Đukić’s drowning at the 2024 CrossFit Games was the creation of the CrossFit Athlete Council (aka CAC). This afternoon CrossFit provided more details surrounding the CAC, including who can be on one of the committees and the responsibilities of committee members.
In CrossFit’s action items, the purpose of the CAC was to “ensure that athletes from the CrossFit community can share feedback and have greater influence on CrossFit’s protocols for competition, safety, broader athlete welfare and the business of sport.”
Similar to the PFAA, the CAC will be elected by fellow athletes. Unlike the PFAA, the CAC will consist of athletes from all divisions of competition, not just elite individuals.
The CAC is not the first time CrossFit has had an athlete council. In 2020, CrossFit formed the Athlete Advisory Council (AAC). It later added the Divisional Athlete Committee (DAC) in 2022 to incorporate athletes from all competitive divisions.
The AAC and DAC were quietly dissolved in 2023. It has been rumored that the PFAA requested that CrossFit eliminate those athlete councils.
In today’s announcement, CrossFit outlined details of how the CAC will work.
Committees
The new CAC will consist of three committees to represent the CrossFit community.
- Individuals and coaches
- Affiliates and Teams
- Divisional (Masters, Teenagers and Adaptive athletes)
The representatives of each committee will be elected by the community. However, the number of members on each committee has not yet been disclosed.
Representative Criteria
With today’s announcement, CrossFit has officially opened up the application process. An email was sent to those who are eligible to apply. Athletes who participated in 2024, including Individual Semifinalists, Team (captains only) Semifinalists, all Masters, Teenagers and Adaptive CrossFit Games athletes and all current affiliate Licensees of Record who had at least five athletes registered for the 2024 Open, can apply.
Additional criteria include:
- Must hold a current CrossFit Level 1 (CF-L1) or higher trainer credential. (Applicants who are registered for, but have not completed their L1 will be considered.)
- Must be associated (i.e., coach, athlete, owner) with an affiliate in good standing.
- Must actively engage in the competition season.
- May not be a current full-time, temporary, and/or contract employee of CrossFit HQ.
Key Responsibilities
Once elected, committee members will have the following responsibilities:
- Proactively engage with athletes and constituents from their group to gather feedback and be able to effectively represent their needs and desires.
- Work with CrossFit HQ to share feedback and discuss issues relevant to sport.
- Help communicate the outcome of these discussions to their representative cohorts.
- Schedule meeting cadence and facilitate meeting agendas.
- Manage committee member representation going forward.
Term
CAC members will serve a two-year term. However, half of the council in the first year will be rotated to engage as many community members during the first cycle.
Athletes who received an email to apply for one of the committees has until December 17, 2024, to submit their self-nomination.
Eligible community members will then receive an email to vote for those who have applied to be a CAC representative. Voting is anticipated to conclude by the end of the year with the first Council members to be announced prior to January 15, 2025 – the day Open registration begins.
