This summer, 60 individual athletes from 20 different countries will compete at the CrossFit Games in Albany, NY.
Both the men’s and women’s divisions will feature athletes from 13 different countries, with the United States boasting the largest representation, comprising 13 men and 11 women slated to compete.
- Australia has the next largest contingent with eight athletes, while the UK qualified five, Canada four, Brazil three, and Switzerland two.
- Fourteen other countries have one athlete competing:
- Germany
- Russia
- Italy
- Poland
- Spain
- Mexico
- Iran
- Zimbabwe
- Colombia
- Finland
- Korea
- Albania
- France
- Ireland
How This Compares to 2024
Last year, athletes from 25 different nations were represented at the CrossFit Games; however, the field was 25% larger in 2024, with 40 men and 40 women, compared to 30 men and 30 women this season.
Ultimately, the numbers are very similar from last season to this year.
- The men’s division was represented by 15 countries in 2024, while the women’s division was fielded by athletes from 17 different countries.
- Further, 14 countries sent just one athlete to the Games in 2024, the exact same as this season.
One Big Thing
For several years now, CrossFit has stated that one of its goals is to bring the sport to a global audience.
- In 2019, this led them to invite national champions from every country to the CrossFit Games, an experiment that was abandoned the following year.
While 2019 was an anomaly season, invitations to the CrossFit Games have long been regionally based, ensuring athletes from all parts of the world are represented, even if it’s just one athlete from a particular region.
This year, for the first time since the early days of the sport, this was not the case.
Remind me: Four of the 10 independently run In-Person Qualifying-Events (IPQEs) did choose to place regional restrictions on their competitions, but it was not a requirement put in place by CrossFit.
- Furthermore, the In-Affiliate Semifinals, hosted by CrossFit, awarded invitations to the top 11 men and 11 women, regardless of their location.
Based on this year’s rules, we could have theoretically seen a field of 28 men and 28 women all hailing from the United States, or 26 men and 26 women all from Europe.
The Big Picture
For the first time since the early days of the sport, there were no rules in place to guarantee international representation at this summer’s Games, yet athletes from 20 different countries will take the floor in Albany in August.
What this means is that world-class CrossFit athletes are emerging from every corner of the world, which can only be seen as a positive sign for the future of the sport.
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Credit: Enrique Villaseńor, @enriquevmedia / Instagram
