Yesterday, I reported that Eren Yayla had received a two-year sanction for “judge misrepresentation”. Today, I am reporting that two additional athletes used the same judge when submitting their scores.
Mahsa Rezaeemanesh and Coşkun Aydın both used Oleksandra Berezutska’s name when submitting scores for the Individual CrossFit Online Semifinals. However, Berezutska did not judge either athlete.
[Update: Ada Merve Pas also used Berezutska’s name as her judge as well.]
You can see Berezutska’s name listed below as a judge for all three athletes.
All three athletes are from CrossFit Boomerang…
None of these athletes’ scores impact the scores of those in contention to qualify for the 2026 CrossFit Games.
And maybe that is why CrossFit has yet to officially sanction the athletes and the judges who “knowingly involved the misrepresentation” of Oleksandra Berezutska. That’s the reasoning that CrossFit used to sanction Ulas Demirtas alongside Yayla yesterday.
At this point you might be wondering how I know that Berezutska didn’t judge these athletes. Well, for one the videos show a man as the floor judge. Second, Berezutska confirmed with me that she had not judged these athletes.
It is interesting how three Turkish athletes all used Berezutska’s name when submitting their scores. The question I have is why did they pick Berezutska as the person to use…
Why does this matter?
You might be also asking why even bring this up? They didn’t qualify and they didn’t impact the top 7 who did.
Well, in my opinion, it shows that the judge requirements for Online Semifinals is broken. We have heard stories of athletes having to travel to find judges with the appropriate credentials.
Athletes have had their scores zeroed out because their judge, who they thought had the proper credentials, didn’t…like Jess Green. And in her case, she was in a qualifying spot, she didn’t receive score adjustments because of movement standards. Instead, her scores were invalidated because of what she calls a misunderstanding.
I believe the intent of these judge requirements implemented last year was the hope that the video review process could be eliminated or that fewer penalties would be assessed because judges would be more ‘vetted’. Remember last year’s Team Online Semifinals?
I think we can all see that the judge requirements do not end up with fewer penalties or issues with a rope not being 15 feet. At this point all it does it place a bigger burden on the athletes who want to take part in the Online Semifinal stage of the season.
