Let me take a moment to introduce myself. My name is Grant Hooper, and I’ve been doing CrossFit for about 4 years. So, I’m the new guy. In 2021, when I walked into an affiliate in San Diego, I was a little over 250 pounds (at 5’9″) and could barely do a pullup.
I love CrossFit. I love it. CrossFit is communal, challenging, functional, and NEVER BORING. While I’d been working out since 2014 in some fashion or another, I’d cycle through periods of intense motivation and complete disinterest. This pattern finally culminated during COVID, resulting in significant weight gain and a complete disdain for exercise altogether.
But CrossFit was different.
Every day brought something new. There was always a skill to master, a movement to perfect, a time to beat. And oddly enough, even after lying on the floor after the metcon feeling like death itself was going to consume me—I’d find myself an hour later eagerly checking tomorrow’s WOD. Despite being overweight, my body knew deep within my bones that CrossFit was exactly what I needed. Through CrossFit and dietary changes, I eventually shed 75 pounds.
In CrossFit, I discovered more than just a workout routine – I found a community where everyone pushes toward their goals together. I found friends, accountability, and ultimately, I found the CrossFit Open – that yearly pilgrimage for average to slightly-above-average CrossFitters worldwide, and the first stepping stone to the Games for the Elite.
For most of us, the Open is where it starts and where it ends. Setting aside last year’s unusual 75% Quarterfinals threshold, there are plenty of even-advanced CrossFitters who’ve never even progressed beyond the Open. The Open is my Christmas. I set alarms for announcements, strategize with friends via text, and inevitably overestimate my abilities, underperform, and end up redoing each workout at least three times in four days.
CrossFit HQ isn’t the main problem right now. You are.
Now a lot of people who will decide whether to participate in this Open Season are OGs, and most have done CrossFit longer than I have. But to be frank, sometimes you need a fresh set of eyes to come in and shove a mirror in your face, so you can see how jaded you’ve become. By “boycotting” the Open through nonparticipation, you might help end the very thing that transformed your life and countless others.
I stand with the Andrew Hillers of the world who have rightfully critiqued CrossFit HQ’s consistent blunders—from the Quarterfinals penalties fiasco, to workout leaks, to lopsided programming and everything in between.
The difference between you and me—Mr. or Mrs. hypothetical CrossFit Open Protester—is that I’m not jaded. I haven’t been around long enough for CrossFit to lose its luster and to forget to count my blessings. And while HQ keeps making mistakes, they’re not enough to justify abandoning something that remains a huge net positive overall. It’s kind of reminds me of that one idiot you may know who is married to a great woman and just can’t appreciate what he has. First comes the occasional complaint, then constant criticism, and before you know it, he’s jumped ship and left a trail of destruction in his wake (or her wake, for the DEI folks out there).

Some people seem determined to remain perpetually malcontent and outraged. Addicted to emotional sensationalism and mob mentality, they can never find lasting contentment or appreciate what they already have. Ironically, this same combination of outrage, emotionalism, and groupthink led to Greg Glassman’s ousting, who then sold the company to Private Equity. That new ownership cut the Games budget and likely, they are the reason why there were fewer lifeguards than usual during this year’s CrossFit Games water event where tragedy struck. Maybe back then, the people who were outraged should have considered the alternatives before they called for the head of Greg Glassman. And maybe they should do the same now.
Maybe just maybe we should voice our criticisms of CrossFit HQ, while continuing to support it as a whole—instead of mindlessly burning it all to the ground, like a child playing with matches.
The Open is Magic, and the Grass is not Greener
If you were to successfully eviscerate CrossFit HQ and let the sport fragment into a hodgepodge of mini-organizations and individual competitions, what would that actually achieve? It wouldn’t prevent poor decision-making—it might actually increase it due to disconnected factions operating without coordination or shared communication. Stupidity, as you know, is universal; there’s no avoiding it. Just take a look at some of the clips on Andrew Hiller’s Instagram page from recent international competitions and ask yourself why you think a non-HQ CrossFit world would be better.
And let’s not forget that CrossFit’s Sport division isn’t unique in having questionable leadership. If you’re pointing fingers at CrossFit for greed, lack of transparency, or compassion, ask yourself: which professional sports organization stands as our beacon of virtue? The NFL? The NBA? The NHL? Not likely. Every professional sport has faced unforeseen safety issues that they only addressed after incidents occurred. Baseball didn’t expand protective netting until a fan died in 2019. Football’s ongoing struggle with head trauma is well-documented. The harsh reality is that all sports carry inherent risks, and all eventually face tragedy of some sort. Sometimes it takes a terrible event to reveal necessary safety measures—even if we should have seen it coming.
This is business, and business exists to make profit. That’s literally its nature. But in CrossFit’s case, I believe we have people at the top who genuinely care. Some of the very leaders being torn apart by the mob are actually more accessible than their counterparts in other sports, and I believe they truly give a crap. Dave Castro, despite being stubborn, brash, and flawed—gives a crap.
But if you go down the path of hating CrossFit HQ, Dave Castro, and Private Equity by boycotting the Open season, you’re helping kill the magic of the CrossFit Open. Some of you might have been doing CrossFit so long that you’ve forgotten the excitement of the CrossFit Open, Friday Night Lights and competing alongside your peers.
Because here’s the real magic of the CrossFit Open—WE ALL START AT THE SAME PLACE.
What other sport lets you compete in the same tournament as Michael Jordan? Has anyone teed off alongside Tiger Woods at their local club championship? Ever faced Babe Ruth at the plate? In CrossFit’s Open, I start exactly where Pat Vellner, Jeff Adler, Tia Toomey, and Laura Horvath do. We tackle identical workouts, and our scores land on the same leaderboard—though finding mine requires a bit more scrolling—okay, a lot more scrolling.
If you’re lucky, you might even complete your Open workout right next to a Games athlete. Or maybe that person working out beside you today becomes tomorrow’s Games competitor. This unique experience only exists because of the CrossFit Open. No other sport on Earth offers anything like it.
Conclusion
Remember, CrossFit’s core mission is improving people’s health. When you diminish the excitement—and the CrossFit Open generates plenty of it—you chip away at what draws people to CrossFit who need it most.
Random functional fitness gyms scattered around the world, lacking a shared mission, common goals, and consistency, can’t achieve what a unified CrossFit community could, under the umbrella of CrossFit HQ. Now HQ doesn’t need to be a monopoly, but the fact remains that most of the magic is found at the affiliate level, under HQ. People’s lives are changed at the affiliate. They get healthy at the affiliate. They find a peaceful sanctuary, free from life’s stresses, at the affiliate. They discover their closest friends and sometimes even life partners at the affiliate. We have something special here, and the CrossFit Open helps anchor it all.
Sure, when you pay your $20 to HQ, some or even most of it might become profit in Private Equity’s pocket—but withholding it won’t improve anything. More profit potentially means more resources for safety, bigger prizes for Games athletes, and a broader platform that attracts more everyday people to local affiliates. Most of us spend money at places like Walmart, Target, Starbucks, Amazon, Apple, etc. You think those companies are doing better? A lot of folks seem to just pick and choose their “moral stance” based on what suits them and lack consistency in applying their outrage across the board.
Skipping the Open might feel like taking a moral stance, but it’s a path that leads nowhere and risks damaging the CrossFit community we’ve all grown to cherish. That’s why I’ll happily pay my $20 to CrossFit HQ this year, and I encourage you to do the same. It’s okay you can shop at Amazon, too. Our whole world is a mixed bag of good and evil. You don’t have to throw the baby out with the bath water.
Let’s preserve the magic of CrossFit while staying engaged and continuing to speak up about our concerns.