Debbie O’Connell has competed at the Adaptive CrossFit Games the past two years. In 2024, O’Connell finished in second place in the 1 Point – Upper Impairment (Female) division. A year later in 2025, O’Connell won the same division of the Adaptive CrossFit Games.
However, O’Connell now faces up to two years of jail time for “lying” about her disability.
To get the full context of what is going on, we have to go back to 2015 when O’Connell injured her shoulder during a military exercise…
Rewind to 2015
Back in 2015, O’Connell broke her collarbone after falling off her horse during a training exercise with the Royal Horse Artillery’s ceremonial unit, the King’s Troop.
At the time, O’Connell said that the accident caused her left arm to be almost useless.
After leaving the British Army, O’Connell then began competing in adaptive sports. She would go on to win gold medals for cycling at the 2018 Invictus Games and sprinted on the world stage.
2018 Lawsuit
Then in 2018, O’Connell sued the UK’s Ministry of Defence for £2.4million as part of a compensation claim. While it was later dropped down to a £1.74million claim, her case was thrown out due to “fundamental dishonesty.”
2025 Ruling
It appears that O’Connell challenged the judge’s dismissal and the case has been ongoing for the past seven years. Then at the High Court on September 9, 2025, Judge Christopher Kennedy said that O’Connell’s evidence of ongoing pain “must be dishonest” as video footage from 2022 showed her doing various activities, including cutting vegetables and leading a horse.
O’Connell said, “She reported that her pain remained the same as before and it restricted her daily activities. [But] the claimant’s presentation on the video is of someone with normal or near normal function in their left upper limb and shoulder.”
He concluded by saying, “I find her evidence in relation to her symptoms must be dishonest.”
The judge ruled that O’Connell attempted “to conceal the truth” about the severity of her injury and received a £200,000-plus-costs bill for the case.
2024 & 2025 CrossFit Games
O’Connell competed at the 2024 and 2025 Adaptive CrossFit Games. As shown above, there were still legal proceedings on-going while O’Connell competed at the 2024 CrossFit Games.
As for the 2025 Adaptive CrossFit Games where O’Connell won her division, the September 9 ruling was just three days before the start of the Games in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Potential Jail Time
Despite the ruling in September 2025, the case was back in court last week where Ministry of Defence barrister (aka lawyer) Niazi Fetto applied to bring contempt of court proceedings against O’Connell. Fetto argued there was “public interest” in the contempt case, which if charged O’Connell could face up to two years of jail time.
O’Connell’s barrister, Ian Denham, argued that O’Connell had already suffered enough as she lost her case and was forced to pay the Ministry of Defence’s legal costs.
However, despite Denham’s plea, the judge ruled against O’Connell.
A hearing to decide whether O’Connell was in contempt of court will be scheduled for a later date. If convicted, O’Connell could face up to two years in jail.
CrossFit Implications
Obviously, the prospect of facing jail time is way more important than any ramifications that CrossFit might take as a result of these legal proceeding. However, I write about CrossFit so it’s worth taking a look at what could happen to O’Connell’s CrossFit Games title, if anything.
WheelWOD, the organizer of the Adaptive CrossFit Games for the past two seasons publishes a rulebook every year. While the 2024 and 2025 rulebooks are not available, the 2026 Adaptive CrossFit Games rulebook is available on the WheelWOD website.
Section 1.01 of the rulebook states that athletes with an existing WheelWOD classification may continue competing under their current classification. It is likely that O’Connell was approved in 2024 when WheelWOD took over managing the Adaptive CrossFit Games.
But while O’Connell was likely not required to resubmit proof of her disability in 2025, Section 1.01a does require athletes to adhere to classification eligibility requirements.
WheelWOD does conduct a three-stage verification process to validate athletes’ classification prior to competing in the Adaptive CrossFit Games season, from athletes submitting paperwork to providing video of test workouts and finally verified throughout competition.
The 2026 rulebook also outlines the requirements to compete in each adaptive division, including the Upper Extremity – 1 Point of Contact division that O’Connell competed in.
And then there’s Appendix B…
This is near the back of the rulebook for “Allegations of Misconduct”. It reads:
An athlete may contact competition@wheelwod.com to file an investigation into unfair practices or Rulebook violations by athletes or judges. This includes but is not limited to the harassment of an athlete (i.e. videoing without consent, bullying, defamation of character, etc.) concerning classification or impairment. WheelWOD will provide the complainant with detailed instructions to initiate the investigation. Any athlete or judge found after the investigation to be in violation of the rules and regulations of WheelWOD may receive written warning, sanction, or suspension. If any individual receives written warning and behavior continues, the individual will be suspended for 2 years.
While the language appears to be mostly focused around harassment, it does include violations of the Rulebook.
It is currently unknown whether any of O’Connell’s competitors or anyone else has contacted CrossFit about O’Connell’s situation.
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