Section 1.13 of the 2024 CrossFit Games rulebook states that one of the requirements to be on a team is “each Open workout must be performed in the same physical location as the team’s affiliate.” Failure to meet these requirements or the inability to prove the requirements have been met can result in the team and/or individual athlete being disqualified.
This year it appears that at least four teams have been disqualified for a team member not doing all three Open workouts at the affiliate. CrossFit CLT The Grit Haus, CrossFit ADM Chambly, CrossFit Kilo II and CrossFit Salvation (and possibly more) have had their Quarterfinal scores removed, thereby eliminating them from advancing to Semifinals.
I was able to catch up with two of the teams, CrossFit CLT The Grit Haus and CrossFit ADM Chambly, to get more information around what happened.
CrossFit CLT The Grit Haus
CrossFit CLT The Grit Haus was looking to return to the CrossFit Games this year after finishing 29th at the 2023 CrossFit Games. Things looked promising as the team finished 32nd in the world during the Open.
That is, until the team received an email stating their scores had been removed due to violating the team eligibility requirements. Josh Hardin originally did 24.1 at his affiliate, CrossFit CLT. However, he was unhappy with his score and decided to re-do the workout from the fire station (he is a firefighter for the city of Charlotte). He videoed the workout and submitted the video with his updated score.
Hardin’s score was seven seconds faster than his original performance, although it was not counted for his team score as it was not one of the two fastest men’s scores on his team.
When the team was notified that Hardin had violated the rules, the team asked if they could use his original score as they had video proof with a time stamp that his first attempt was completed at the affiliate. According to Kevin Steinhaus, the team captain, CrossFit responded and said the ruling is final.
CrossFit ADM Chambly
As for CrossFit ADM Chambly, they also were disqualified for a similar reason. In their case, Maxine Roy De Sylva, the owner of CrossFit ADM Chambly, had to leave the country for personal reasons during the last week of the CrossFit Open. He completed the workout at an affiliate in Florida, CrossFit Punta Gorda.
When the CrossFit team reviewed CrossFit ADM Chambly’s eligibility, they saw that Maxine had not completed all three Open workouts at the affiliate and notified the team that their scores were removed from the leaderboard.
With the change to team eligibility requirements last year, the main requirement to be on a team was that all of the Open and Quarterfinal workouts had to be completed at the registered affiliate. Unfortunately, for a handful of teams a simple oversight or possibly personal reasons outside of their control caused them to be disqualified this year.
The Team Quarterfinal leaderboard is still under review and is not yet final.
