For the first time in the history of the Reebok CrossFit Games, the Spirit of the Games award has been given to a team.
What is the Spirit of the Games? CrossFit HQ’s Director of Training and Certification, Nicole Carroll, took to the stage at Sunday’s awards ceremony to explain the meaning behind the title. You can watch her speech below (you’ll have to skip ahead to the 4:34:30 mark), but we’ve transcribed it beneath the video. There’s also a (very cropped) video of the announcement in an Instagram post below.
Note that this is the first time spectators from all over the world were able to vote on who deserves the title.
The Spirit of the Games award absolutely belongs to the CrossFit community. It’s the award that connects the sport of fitness to what we do in our affiliates every day all over the world. It also gives us a little opportunity to connect with the Fittest on Earth and remind ourselves of the things we have in common with them.
Each year in trying to find deserving recipients we ask ourselves questions like who exhibits extraordinary character in a field of already extraordinary humans, and who inspires us to live with a little more courage, graciousness, selflessness, and grit in the face of the most grueling challenges. (…)
In 2018 let this award remind you all that you have a gift to give the world that transcends points on a leaderboard and aesthetics.
The award went to Código CrossFit, an Argentinian team that was a last minute fill in for a team that was disqualified for doping. They came 34th overall with 304 points.
In a lengthy Spanish language Instagram post, they thanked their coaches and friends and wrote, “Thank you for showing us that everything is possible as long as we have the will to do it.”
Featured image via The CrossFit Games on Facebook.
