The CrossFit Games began as a small gathering of friends on a dusty ranch in Aromas, Calif., eight years ago. Now, the Games are a sport with a three-stage season and more than 100,000 competitors from across the globe.

The Games have evolved each year. In 2009, Regionals were added. In 2010, the Games moved from Aromas to Carson. In 2011, the online Open was introduced. In 2013, the Masters competition expanded to five age divisions.

There are several important changes to the CrossFit Games season in 2014. Let’s take a quick look at what’s new.

New Open Workout Release and Close Dates

In 2014, the week’s Open workout will be released on Thursday and will close the following Monday (5 p.m. PT). Like last year, athletes will have four days to perform the workout and submit their scores.

New Video Requirements for Regional Qualifiers

Any athlete who hopes to compete at Regionals will need to follow a few extra steps during the Open.

Those who complete the Open workouts at an affiliate will need to:

1. Use a registered judge who has passed CrossFit’s Judges Course,

2. Have their result validated by an affiliate manager,

3. Videotape their performance.

Videos are required to collect prize money, and may be requested by CrossFit Games staff at any point during the Open.

At the end of the Open, the top 60 men and top 60 women in each region will be required to submit at least one complete video of one of the Open workouts. Athletes will not be told which video they will need to submit until after the final workout has closed. The required video will be verified by CrossFit Games staff prior to sending out Regional invitations for individuals and teams.

After the video review, the top 48 men, top 48 women and top 30 teams in each region will be invited to compete in their respective Regional competition.

Team competitors are included. If an athlete on a Regional qualifying team finishes in the top 60 in the individual division in their region, he or she will have to submit video of the Open workout requested by CrossFit.

New Masters Qualifier

In the Open, Masters will compete against all other international athletes for the opportunity to advance to the next level of competition. Following the Open, the top 200 Masters athletes in each age division will be invited to perform four additional workouts.

The additional workouts will be released on Thursday, April 17 at 5 p.m. PT. Masters will have until Monday, April 21 at 5 p.m. PT, to submit their scores or video submissions from these workouts.

Masters athletes submitting scores must use a registered judge for each workout and have their performance validated by an affiliate. In addition, all four workouts need to be videotaped as Masters may be asked to submit one to four of these videos for review. Alternatively, Masters may elect to submit videos of the four workouts online following the same video submission guidelines from the Open.

Masters athletes will have five scores tabulated in order to determine their ranking in this competition: four scores from the additional workouts and one score based on their finish in the Open. The top 20 Masters athletes in each division will then be invited to compete in the 2014 Reebok CrossFit Games.

New Wild Card Spots

Forty-three men and 43 women will be awarded spots to the CrossFit Games at the Regionals—that’s it. Even if a past champion qualifies, additional spots will not open up.

If CrossFit chooses to invite more than 43 athletes, the wild card spots will go to the athletes who performed the best relative to all other Regional competitors. The number of wild card spots will be announced following Regionals.

New Team Documentation

Teams are required to have all members regularly train at the team location. If there is any ambiguity about whether any member of a team meets the requirements, such as an athlete who formerly trained at another gym or who lives suspiciously far from the team gym, CrossFit may require the athlete to produce documentation proving they have indeed met the team requirements.

The athlete should be prepared to provide a detailed training log outlining dates and times of workouts at the team location. This training log should be accompanied by photographic evidence that is time stamped.

For example, an athlete could use date- and time-stamped photos in front of the whiteboard for every training session they attend at the team gym. The athlete could email these photos to their own email account and store them in a dedicated folder to be retrieved if necessary.

If members only train at the team location, detailed documentation will likely not be asked for.

New Drug Testing Program

In 2014, CrossFit will expand out-of-competition (unannounced) drug testing. This means that any registered CrossFit competitor can be tested at any time during the year for any reason.



Change to Team Competition in 2014

Individual competitors will no longer assist team qualification for Regionals.

Athletes who accept the invitation to compete as Individuals at their Regional will have their contributing Open scores removed from their respective Teams. The Team Leaderboard will then be re-sorted and the top 30 teams will be invited to compete at their respective Regional competition.

Read more.

Revised Rulebook and Drug Testing Policy

Learn more about the CrossFit Games competition rules by reading the 2014 Rulebook and 2014 Drug Testing Policy.



Updated January 21, 2014--The section "Change to Team Competition in 2014" was added.