For the past two years, the prize purse for the CrossFit Games season has been based on the number of athletes who registered for the CrossFit Open. Appendix G CrossFit Games rulebook shows the calculation of prize money based on a hypothetical number of registrations.
In the 2026 CrossFit Games rulebook, that hypothetical number was 250,000 total registrations. This would equate to a $2.5 million total prize purse for the 2026 season. That prize money would be split between various stages of the season from the Open to the CrossFit Games.
In this example, first place at the 2026 CrossFit Games would be $306,250 for the men’s and women’s champion. The top team would take home $75,000. The prize purse breakdown in the rulebook (based on 250,000 registrations) is shown below.
THE BIG CHECKS
During the podium ceremony CrossFit handed out those giant checks to Aimee Cringle, James Sprague and CrossFit Whip. You can see those below…
Cringle and Sprague’s checks are $297,469.25. CrossFit Whip’s check is $75,107.96.
THE PROBLEM
But here’s the problem…
Based on the example in the CrossFit Games rulebook, the individual champion check is LESS than the example, but the team champion check is MORE than the example.
This makes zero sense.
The team and individual checks should be either both above the amounts stated in the rulebook (because Open registrations were above 250,000) or both should be below those stated amounts (because registrations were less than 250,000). In no case should the team check increase while the individual checks decrease.
OPEN REGISTRATIONS
On March 17, I reported that the 2026 CrossFit Open had an estimated 254,690 registrations. I reported this by manually adding up each division on the CrossFit Games leaderboard for the Open. Additionally, I included the 766 registrations for the Adaptive division.
When seeing the issue with the checks, I recounted the Open registrations on the leaderboard. I counted 254,692 registrations.
With the registrations not changing materially and higher than the 250,000 example in the rulebook, the prize money should be higher than $306,250 for Cringle and Sprague.
CALCULATED PAYOUT
By following the calculations outlined in the 2026 CrossFit Games rulebook, Cringle and Sprague should have received approximately $312,000 while CrossFit Whip should have received close to $76,400. This matches what I reported back in March.
If you try to reverse engineer the payouts to the number of Open registrations, you get two different numbers.
Using Cringle and Sprague’s $297,469.25 payout, that would imply 242,832 total registrations in the 2026 CrossFit Open.
If you use CrossFit Whip’s $75,107,96 payout, that would imply 250,360 total registrations.
One is obviously wrong and I would say that both are wrong because the Open leaderboard on the CrossFit Games website (and Competition Corner for the Adaptive division) adds up to 254,692 total registrations.
MASTERS AND ADAPTIVE PRIZE PURSE
On a related topic, the 2026 CrossFit Games rulebook states that “payouts per placement for each division of the Masters and Adaptive competitions will be released prior to the start of each respective competition.”
However, that was never done. I received questions from multiple athletes asking if the payouts were ever announced as they were not told during their respective podium ceremonies. From what I can tell that was never disclosed either.
