South America Women Poised to Earn 3rd Qualifying Spot to CrossFit Games

Last year CrossFit changed how it allocated qualifying spots to the CrossFit Games. Utilizing a new worldwide ranking system combined with the D’Hondt Method calculation, CrossFit would adjust how many qualifying spots from each Semifinal would advance to the Games.

Of the 40 spots for men and women, CrossFit gave each Semifinal a minimum number of qualifying spots. The Big 3 (North America East, North America West and Europe) each received five minimum spots. Oceania received three, Asia and South America got two each and Africa was given one. The remaining 17 were then distributed based on the worldwide rankings after Quarterfinals.

To be in the Top 100 worldwide rankings, an athlete must accumulate enough points over the past two seasons. For the upcoming worldwide rankings after this year’s Quarterfinals, it will be based on performance from the 2022 Semifinals through the 2024 Quarterfinals.

If an athlete does not register for the 2024 Individual Quarterfinals, they are removed from the worldwide rankings (even if they have enough points to be ranked). For example, Mal O’Brien, Katrin Davidsdottir, Ellie Turner and Baylee Rayl will all be removed from the worldwide rankings once Quarterfinals are finalized. However, Matilde Garnes will still be ranked even though she is going team this year because she registered for the individual Quarterfinals.

When looking at the women’s current top 100 (after the 2023 CrossFit Games), 28 women will be removed from the worldwide rankings because they did not register for this year’s individual Quarterfinals. Those will be backfilled by women just outside the top 100 who did compete this year along with athletes like Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr and Haley Adams who returned to competition after taking a year off.

After backfilling the 28 vacancies with those currently outside the top 100, the South American women are poised to earn an additional qualifying spot to the CrossFit Games. Guaranteed a minimum two spots to the Games, it appears that they could have five women inside the top 100 of the worldwide rankings after Quarterfinals.

The following women who are projected to be inside the top 100 are:

• Victoria Campos (currently 13th)
• Julia Kato (72nd)
• Amanda Fusuma (105th)
• Andreia Pinheiro (129th)
• Luiza Marques (130th)

Fusuma, Pinheiro and Marques are all currently outside the top 100, but are expected to move into the top 100, pending their final Quarterfinal placement.

If all these women do in fact move into the top 100, South America will receive three qualifying spots to the 2024 CrossFit Games. South America would be the only smaller region to receive an additional qualifying spot via the D’Hondt calculation.

Earlier this year I wrote how Oceania could earn an additional qualifying spot if several team athletes registered and entered their scores. However, with Ellie Turner not competing this season, Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr receiving a region exemption and Jamie Simmonds, Kara Saunders and Emily de Rooy all going team and not signing up for individual Quarterfinals, Oceania will likely only have three women in the top 100, not enough to earn a 4th qualifying spot to the Games.

Based on my projections of the Top 100, here is how many qualifying spots I am projecting for each Semifinal:

As you can see in the table above, North America West and Europe could each lose a qualifying spot. North America East and South America would then pick up an additional qualifying spot over their allocation in 2023.

The men’s field has much less turnover. Fifteen men will be removed from the Top 100 rankings after Quarterfinals due to not registering this year. However, the backfills are not anticipated to alter the qualifying spots allocated to each region. I am projecting the same number of qualifying spots to each region as last year. However, I am calculating Oceania and South America will each have four men in the top 100. If one more man can sneak in to the top 100, they would earn an additional qualifying spot to the Games this year.

Here are the projected number of qualifying spots by region for the men: