CrossFit Controversy: Standards Matter

Maybe you’ve already heard the controversy surrounding the 2024 CrossFit Quarter Finals online qualifiers.  Top athletes are required to submit video of their Quarter Final workouts to verify their scores.  This year CrossFit HQ requested video review from Quarter Finals Workout 24.1.  As a result, over 100 top CrossFit athletes received penalties.  One athlete dropped 100 places in the leaderboard due to assessed penalties making her ineligible for the semi finals.  Last year she finished 10th worldwide at the CrossFit Games.

CrossFit veterans such as Patrick Vellner and Tia Claire Toomey received penalties though both remain eligible for the semi finals.  And this is despite the fact that they hired CrossFit Games judges to judge their workouts.

So what happened?

The main culprit was the dumbbell box step ups where athletes failed to reach full knee and hip extension on top of the box.  Ever the class act, Vellner released his 24.1 video footage so everyone can see why he was penalized.

I do not believe any of the athletes intended to short this movement.  They were moving as quickly as possible in a fatigued state making objective self-evaluation challenging.  That’s what the judge is there for.  This does not exempt the athlete from responsibility.  Indeed, CrossFit veteran Jonne Koski, after reviewing his own video submission, preemptively redid the workout because he saw that some of his reps did not meet the standard.

As an athlete, it is your responsibility to know the standards and adhere to them.  Too often in training I will see athletes rushing or in a fatigued state get sloppy with their movements.  In the box jump or box step up this means squeezing your glutes on the top of the box to achieve full hip extension.  Do not look down at the box as this will tend to prevent complete hip extension.  Because effective hip extension is key to optimizing athletic performance and because who doesn’t want a great derriere, being capable of meeting this standard while in a fatigued state has important athletic implications.

If you allow yourself to get sloppy in training, guess what will happen when you are rushed or fatigued?  It is important that you use your daily workouts to hardwire perfect movement patterns so that they become your default.

If you look at the comments below Patrick Vellner’s Youtube post you will see a lot of outraged supporters claiming all his reps are good.  For years Vellner has been my favourite male CrossFit athlete and continues to be.  I am on the team Vellner bandwagon and am very happy his penalties did not prevent him from advancing to semifinals.  But in the portion of video that I watched not a single one of his box step ups met the competition standards.  I would never let an athlete count those reps in a group class workout.

It concerns me that so many in our community cannot correctly differentiate a good from a bad rep.  Maybe none of the commenters have completed the online judging course.  I hope none of them are affiliate owners, coaches or judges for the CrossFit Open!

Yes, I believe the athletes need to be responsible for their movement standards and I think Vellner clearly took responsibility for his failure to meet the standards.  But the really outrageous failure here belongs to the judges.  Some of these judges were paid by well-meaning athletes to make sure their movements met the standards specifically in order to avoid the penalties that they received.  So what were the judges doing?  Were they unclear on the standards?  Were they afraid to “no-rep” their employers?  I sure hope they issued a full refund for their judging services because they certainly did not do the job they were hired to do. 

As an athlete it is very important to me that my judge both knows the movement standards and holds me to them.  If I am confident in my judge then all I need to do is put my head down and work hard trusting that they will keep me on track.  From this perspective I feel so sorry for all the athletes whose judges let them down on 24.1!  For many CrossFit competition is their career, their scores matter.  When a handful of reps can be the difference between qualifying or not, parity in the standards matters.  What a shame then that sloppy judging hurt the results of so many competitors.

At Empower we take the movement standards very seriously and when I coach group classes I try to hold all Empower athletes to the standards so that you know them and become proficient in meeting them.  Not only once a year when the CrossFit Open rolls around but every single day until you can perform the movements correctly in your sleep.  The standards are not simply there for competitive parity, they also are there to support correct biomechanical movement (prevent injury) and promote athletic development (make you better).  Failure to adhere to movement standards increases your risk of injury, decreases your athletic efficacy and is cheating.

Learn the standards.  If you’re not sure, ask.  Then slow down and execute movements correctly.  Practice doesn’t make perfect.  Perfect practice makes perfect.  Don’t waste your time practicing incorrect or substandard movement patterns. 

Monday
Today the class will split into 2 groups with one half performing the AMRAP while the other practices the skill-based E2MOM.  The E2MOM is intended to be performed at a light weight with low volume so as not to impede performance in the AMRAP.  Load accordingly.

Warm Up
2 Rounds
A. 1 min Alt. KB TGU
B. 1 min Samson Lunges
C. 1 min Leopard Crawl
D. 1 min Ring Rows

Tech
Wall Walk
C2B
DB Waiter’s Lunge

WOD #1
12 min AMRAP
4 Wall Walks
8 C2B Pull Ups
12 DB Waiters Lunges

WOD #2
(at approx 50% 1 rep max)
6 round E2MOM
1 Power Snatch
1 Hang Squat Snatch
1 Overhead Squats