Superforce CrossFit had 613 members register for the 2024 CrossFit Open, the most of any affiliate last year. But with less than a week to the start of the 2025 CrossFit Open, only 20 members have signed up.
After noticing the significant drop, I reached out to see if it was just a matter of timing or if the 17-unit affiliate in Brazil was not going to participate this year.
Following my inquiry, Pedro Salerno, owner of Superforce CrossFit, shared the reason behind the low registration numbers. “It’s not a last-minute registration strategy,” said Salerno when asked if it’s just a timing issue. He then said, “In fact, we chose not to join the Open movement this year.”
It was a bit surprising to hear that after registering 438 athletes in 2023 and then 613 athletes in 2024, the Brazilian affiliate network just decided to stop participating. So I asked if there was a reason behind that decision.
Salerno explained, “In recent years, we have broken record after record in the number of Open registrations. Together with other boxes, we led a movement of participation in the Open that had never been seen in Brazil, the largest growth in registrations in a country last year, in addition to the fact that we are now the affiliate with the most units in the world, 17 in total.”
He continued, “They [CrossFit] didn’t even think about bringing an event to announce the Open event to our city, as has been the tradition for years for the two boxes with the largest number of Open registrations.” Salerno said that a representative from CrossFit told him that hosting an Open announcement in Brazil was “financially unfeasible”.
Not getting to host an Open announcement was just one of the reasons you won’t see Superforce participating this year. Salerno said the Superforce brand has also been overlooked as hosts for certification courses, adding that CrossFit seems to have their favorites when making those decisions.
Additionally, Salerno said that CrossFit notified Superforce CrossFit that they could not be a HYROX affiliate. Salerno said, “We were one of the pioneering boxes in affiliation with HYROX in Brazil. “We were notified that we could not be HYROX since we are CrossFit, or we would be fined, but apparently, only SuperForce in all of Brazil and the world was notified.”
And finally, Salerno said that the with the registration in US Dollars, the exchange rate has made it very expensive in the local currency, the Brazilian Real.Â
Package all of that together and that is the reason why Superforce CrossFit will not be seen at the top of the Affiliate Participation Leaderboard this year.Â
With that in mind, Salerno said that members are free to register and participate in the CrossFit Open. It’s just that Superforce CrossFit will not be promoting it to their members.
Superforce CrossFit owns and operates 17 CrossFit gym locations across Brazil.
The 2025 CrossFit Open begins Thursday, February 27, with the 25.1 live announcement from CrossFit Mayhem. Austin Hatfield, Haley Adams, Roman Khrennikov and maybe Rich Froning will take on the workout.
As for participating CrossFit affiliates, CrossFit Black Edition in Portugal leads the worldwide leaderboard with 369 registered members. CrossFit Northumbria is in 2nd place with 296 members and CrossFit Hendersonville has 264 registered athletes.
