Week 1 of the 2017 Reebok CrossFit Games Open has officially come to a close. Workout 17.1 brought us a for-time couplet of 150 dumbbell snatches and 75 burpee box jump-overs (BBJOs). With a tight 20-minute time cap, we saw a large portion of the field fail to complete all the reps.

This workout shared some similarities with 16.1—chief among them a similar time domain and priority (16.1 was a 20-minute AMRAP). The nice thing about 17.1’s format is that you got to stop early if you were good enough to finish.

The lightish dumbbell snatches (compared to the 100/70 lb. we’ve seen at Regionals) and BBJOs performed for 10-20 minutes provided a primarily aerobic stimulus for most competitors. Various social-media networks were peppered with tales of early paces that turned out to be far too ambitious once the round of 40 began. Proper pacing and strategy were key on this workout. Many competitors reportedly shaved 1 to 2 minutes (or more) by adjusting snatch and BBJO technique as well as adopting a more consistent and restrained pace.

For those used to taking multiple attempts at each Open workout, this was a challenging one to repeat as the snatches caused quite a bit of lower back soreness and fatigue. Waking up the day after your 17.1 attempt left no question as to the meaning of Dave’s “Hunchback” Instagram clue.

Community Participation

We had the largest CrossFit Games Open participation to date on 17.1, with over 360,000 scores already validated (validation ends March 2, 2017, at 5 p.m. PST). The 2017 season also introduced the new 35-39 Masters Division. We expect to see a lot of former Games veterans jump back into the spotlight in this new division.

The addition of the 35-39 Division has migrated 63,891 previously individual athletes under the masters umbrella, making it the largest masters division.

Percentiles

Although the top Rx’d individual times for men and women were both sub-10 minutes, it *only* took a time of 12:09 and 12:35, respectively, to score in the 99th percentile. For the men, you had to finish the workout in 19:55 in order to reach the 50th percentile. For the women, it took 215 reps (5 of the last 15 BBJOs) to reach the 50th percentile.

For a percentile breakdown of every division, check out the full percentile table.

Capped, Scaled, and Finished

There was a pretty big difference between the Rx’d percentages of individual men on 17.1 and the rest of the divisions (this was also the case for 16.1). 85 percent of individual men did 17.1 as Rx’d compared to 63 percent of individual women. The Rx’d percentage for men under 55 (who all did the Rx’d version of the workout) steadily decreased as the masters age-group increased. The same trend held true for the women. Overall, the teens had an Rx’d percentage of 69 percent.

The following two charts show the breakdown between individual athletes who finished the workout as Rx’d, were time-capped as Rx’d, finished the scaled version, or were time-capped on the scaled version. For the individual men, the vast majority performed the workout as Rx’d and slightly more than half of those were able to finish the workout (44 percent of individual men finished it). For the individual women, only 27 percent of the competitors were able to finish the workout as Rx’d.

What a Difference a Minute Makes

Since at least the 2008 CrossFit Games, CrossFit athletes have understood that every second counts. When participating in a competition with over 360,000 competitors, a relatively small difference in time can have huge ramifications on the leaderboard. When considering athletes who redid the workout and improved their scores by over a minute, the following graphic demonstrates just how important that 1 minute can be. The closer one’s time gets to the 20-minute mark, the more drastic the leaderboard drop becomes. For anyone looking to move on to the next level of competition, it pays to turn in the best possible score you can accomplish before the deadline. Even if that means repeating a brutal workout two or more times.

Analysis by:

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