“With no other masters available, as all the teams were already put together, the team asked clancy to join: just for fun. Just for the fun of doing the workouts, for the camaraderie, nothing else. We were not trying to cheat.” -Response from CrossFit Shrewsbury when questioned about “Clancy Michaels”.

Let me begin with a positive: big giant Kudos to the legit Masters Teams during the first phase of CrossFit Team Series Week 1. There are some seriously awesome scores posted by strong, legitimate 40+ athletes.

So on to the Not-So-Positive…

What would you think if a top “Masters” team competed with a 33 year old athlete? What? Who would do that? That’s just wrong.

Wait for it, because it gets worse: they didn’t use that person’s real CF Games profile. Nope. They created a fake profile with that athlete’s name transposed and an ‘s’ added to the end to “game” the system.

What? For real?

For REAL. Same basic name (mostly). Same Box in NJ. Just backwards and plural. And Older. A LOT older.

And what you you think if that so called “Masters” team immediately posted a 1st and 3rd place world wide score? Like… as soon as they could so that they could see their score on the Leaderboard? Which is kind of ballsy considering that all of the other competing teams are going to naturally click on their top scores to see who are the bad-asses who posted awesome sauce scores.

All this would be smarmy at best. But take it a step further: what if that 33 year old athlete was a past Regional team competitor in 2014? Like this guy?

Feeling a little disgusted? I’m with you. Although it might be heartburn. I get that a lot. Because I’m old.

But back to the point: what if they were also a coach at their box? You know… someone like the people most of you reading this look up to each day. The person who’s supposed to be guiding the Newbies and setting examples. You know… a mentor?

Click here. It’s real. http://www.crossfitshrewsbury.com/coaches-1.html

And what if another member on that same kick-ass “Masters” team (legitimately over 40) was also a coach and knowingly did the MASTERS workouts with an elite regional athlete that was 7 years too young? Would you think it was OK? Is that fun? What if that same coach was also the AFFILIATE OWNER?

Because that’s what CrossFit Shrewsbury did this week during the CrossFit Games Team Series. Some one created a fake profile (that’s right… I said it) for “Clancy Micheals” (listed as a member of CrossFit Shrewsbury). As of the time of this article, he’s long been deleted–they did it around 6AM PST, but I screen captured his profile before he was outed. “Clancy Michaels” conveniently belongs to the same box of 2014 Regional Team Athlete, Michael Clancy.

OK. So big deal you say. Right? Except that Michael Clancy is a beast: 6’4 and weighs 250 pounds. His listed Clean & Jerk is 325 pounds. His listed snatch is 250 pounds. His deadlift is 615 pounds and his back squat is 540 pounds.

Maybe I’m easily impressed, but I kinda think that’s a beast? I know a lot of elite Master’s athletes and there’s only one I can think of who comes close to that. His name is Bob. He’s 50. His numbers are ALMOST as good as Michael Clancy’s. Yup. That’s right. He’s 50 and he rocks his shit.

Wonder what it would have been like when Bob was 33? And Michael was 50? How “fun” would that feel?





And what would you think if the affiliate who validated the scores of a fake profile/team said: yes… we did that but we weren’t cheating. It was all in the spirit of “fun” and camaraderie”? What if they tried to make you believe that it was an accident? That Michael Clancy was just doing a favor and helping his team out because they didn’t have a Masters athlete because someone got hurt? Here’s their response when I asked them about Clancy Michaels this morning. It was early and I was cranky… so I posted this reply. I’ve re-read it a bunch of times and you know what? I still feel like it was well sent. I mean… who forgets they’re not 40? None of my kick -ass thirty something regional competitor athlete friends. Nope. NEVER. But CrossFit Shrewsbury Team Gold posted their scores right away… their other three teams from their box that still haven’t done that. What was the rush? They could have waited to have a legitimate team by Monday at 5PM PST like everyone else. And if it was “just for fun” why not just do the workouts at your box and keep it to yourself? Or… I don’t know… how about register as an OPEN team and suck it up… you know, because it’s just for fun. Right? The workouts are exactly the same for Open and Masters. And again… WHY THE F’ would you need a FAKE PROFILE?

So what’s the story with Clancy Michaels? Why did they do it? You look at the pictures and decide for yourself. Michael Clancy was at the Granite Games this weekend, which is a big deal in and of itself <Note: Please see correction from Michael Clancy at the end of this post>. But there’s a big difference between 684th and 1st and 3rd. Maybe Masters is the New Black? Do you think this is OK? Do you CrossFit Shrewsbury represents the spirit of CrossFit? Are these your peers? Do you think it’s OK for well-known CrossFit Affiliate to knowingly validate a fake profile? Do you think its OK to SMASH a Masters Comp with a 33 year old regional athlete? If not, please let CrossFit HQ know… send them a message at teamseriessupport@crossfit.com

Here’s more on Clancy Michaels: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDfq0yH6Y-M

He loves the Clean and Jerk ladder because he was the only one to go all the way through during Regionals 2014. I’ll bet WOD 2 Ascending Grace was super fun. I can only imagine the camaraderie.

But hey, it’s only Masters. It’s just for fun. Because Masters Division isn’t real anyway. Rules are just guidelines.

Oopsies! My Bad. Are you having fun?

Important note: CrossFit HQ responded immediately to my concerns today when presented with this documentation. Big props for taking this seriously. We know you will do the right thing 🙂

Update September 16, 2015: It has been brought to my attention that Michael Clancy was not at the Granite Games because he didn’t qualify. My apologies. I thought he was a better athlete. Per the request of Michael Clancy/a.k.a. Clancy Michaels/a.k.a. Johnathan Devereaux (a.k.a. (emailaddressblocked), I am making this correction. And as promised, I agreed to post Michael’s comments unedited.