Seungyeon Choi is the latest female Games athlete who will not be returning to Madison this August. Choi, who has represented the Asia region the past two seasons, shared today on Instagram that she will not be competing in 2023 due to a shoulder injury.
According to Choi, she injured her left shoulder this past October and while she was hoping it would heal in time for the 2023 CrossFit Open, it has not. So rather than try to push through the pain, Choi has made the decision to sit out this season and rehab her shoulder so she can come back stronger in 2024.
Choi signed up for her first CrossFit Open in 2018. Since then, the South Korean native has worked her way up the leaderboard and qualified for the CrossFit Asia Invitational Semifinal in 2021. She would take 2nd and qualify for her first CrossFit Games where she finished 34th overall.
Then this past season, Choi won the Far East Throwdown Semifinal and improved upon her performance at the Games ending up 26th.
Heading into the 2023 season, Choi was the favorite coming out of the Asia region, but with her dropping out of the competition it leaves a void for the 2nd qualifying spot.
The Asia region is guaranteed two qualifying spots to the CrossFit Games. Seher Kaya now moves into the top athlete returning in Asia. But after Kaya, it is likely that we will see a new athlete emerge and earn their first trip to Madison this August.
The Asia region has now lost two of its top athletes this year, Choi to injury, but also Roman Khrennikov. Khrennikov will still be competing in 2023, but he received a competition region exemption this year and will be competing out of the North America East region as he is currently living in Cookeville, Tennessee, and training with the Mayhem camp.
