The Open Report: Week 2

Days until the 2024 CrossFit Open: 28

(Register for the Open now)

The Open is “Unknown & Unknowable”… but there are, thankfully clues.

“From the beginning, the aim of CrossFit has been to forge a broad, general and inclusive fitness. We sought to build a program that would best prepare trainees for any physical contingency—prepare them not only for the unknown but for the unknowable.” – Greg Glassman, “Understanding CrossFit,” The CrossFit Journal, 2007

Preparing for the Unknown and Unknowable is CrossFit. Founder Greg Glassman’s words are exemplified in the weeks leading up to The Open as athletes finish up their Open prep. With every new year and new Open, a question starts to bubble up around affiliate chalk buckets, text threads, and online forums, “What will we see in the Open this year?” Who’s ready for 7 minutes of burpees, a 4th year in a row of wall walks, or how about a repeat workout?

It’s anyone’s guess, so it’s best to be prepared and keep an eye out for clues.

As the weeks turn into days from the start of the Open we usually start to get some inclination, clue, or even an outright warning. 

• In 2017, Games Director Dave Castro posted a picture on his Instagram of two 50 and two 35-pound dumbbells with “you’ve been warned” written underneath them. Open workouts 17.1 and 17.2 both then used single or double dumbbell movements. 

The posts from Castro and the Games team aren’t always as straightforward. Here are some of the recent clues we have seen and what then the workout was, if you connected these dots you’re a genius:

2023 – Aesop’s Fables: The Hunter and the Woodman: 23.3 – Wall Walks/HSPUs, Double Unders and increasing weight Snatches with a gated time cap for each round.

2022 – An 1831 drawing of a Philadelphia gymnasium: 22.3 – 21-18-15 of Pull-Ups/Chest-to-Bar Pull-Ups/Bar Muscle-Ups, with two times the double-unders and increasing weight thrusters

2021 – A coyote skull: 21.1 – 1-3-6-9-15-21 Wall Walks / 10-30-60-90-150-210 Double-Unders

Besides cryptic skulls and fables, another clue we normally get is an equipment list. The list gave athletes and affiliates time to prepare similar to the 2017 warning. 

• Adrian Bozman announced that there will be no equipment list for the 2024 Open, so no clues there, and no freaking out over kettlebells in the Open like 2023. 
• The same goes for floor layouts which in the Quarterfinals and Age Group Semifinals gave a bit of a clearer picture of what may be up Boz’s sleeve, those look to be a thing of the past as well as Boz states that layouts will be simplified to only focus on safety concerns but not the multiple rolls of tape they used to consume.

The guessing game has turned into an annual talking point for the media as well. CrossFit Programming focused podcasts like, ‘the WODPrep Podcast’, ‘Get with the Programming’ and ‘Shut up and Scribble’ give their take on what they think we will see in the Open, based on what they’ve seen in the past, (see below for more on that), what’s likely from what they knew about Adrian Bozman’s and Dave Castro’s previous programming and skill sets, and what they believe would be a well-rounded test of fitness to find the top 25% to move on to Quarterfinals. 

If you look back on what has been programmed over the years, repetition and frequency give additional clues into what’s likely to come back again. Here are the top 5 movements we have seen from 2011 to 2023 in the Open which gives a basis for what we may likely see in 2024. The Morning Chalk Up has kept a full list which can be found here: 

2011-2023 Open Movement List:

Some versions of Thrusters and Double-Unders have been in all 13 previous iterations of the Open. Toes-to-Bar has been in all but 2022 and Chest-to-Bar Pull-Ups and Wall Balls have been in the Open 11 and 10 times respectively. 

In the last 3 Opens 2021-23, we have seen wall walks. I remember the first year fondly… in 2021 that was my first ever Open, and I had surgery to repair a broken wrist just 2 months earlier. I went from excitement to dread in seconds as Castro said “I gleefully give you… the wall walk.” I was as dead inside as that coyote skull. I scaled both the double-unders and wall walks in my first year but didn’t let that stop me. I was much happier to see them both again in 23.3, where it went much better, but maybe give the wall walks a rest! (please?)

The same guessing game and clues pop up in relation to tracking registration.  Just a few weeks in, it is still anyone’s guess, and there have been many guesses in the comments of our week 1 post. As we get closer, average daily totals, promotion and momentum start to bring the picture into focus on whether or not we will see another year of double-digit growth or a leveling off. Will we see more or fewer affiliates participating this year? And what will the cut-line be for the top 25% of each region that goes on to the next stage, Quarterfinals? 

With that in mind, I ‘gleefully’ give you… Week 2 of Open registration tracking.

Reminder: Dates and info for the 2024 Open:

• Registration started on January 9 at noon PT
• Open Workout 24.1 starts on February 29 at noon PT
• Open Workout 24.3 ends on March 18 at 5 PM PT

That gives us a window of 52 total days for registration prior to the first workout, plus 19 days between workouts 24.1 and 24.3.

• Check out the 2024 Open Schedule

(Editor’s Note: All data below this point for the 2024 CrossFit Open was pulled from the CrossFit leaderboard on Wednesday, January 31st at 3 PM ET.)

We are now 22 days into the registration window and 28 days until the Open begins.

BIG NEWS: Chase Ingraham and Adrian Bozman mentioned on the CrossFit Games Podcast that the first 24-hour registration total for 2024, nearly 21,000 athletes, was the most sign-ups ever on a day 1, including the high watermark year of2018. 

The current 2024 registration total is growing at an average rate of around 3,566 each day after the initial day 1 of 20,982. Compared to previous years:

Past 7-Day Comparison Year-Over-Year

Note: The 2023 Open registration started on November 17, 2022, with an incentive from NOBULL to register prior to December 31. In 2022, Open registration started on January 13, similar to 2024.

The bottom line: In the second week of tracking, we are getting some insight into things to come. You can see the averages dip slightly in what will be a slow point between the hype of initial registrations and the last-minute registration climb to come. 

I will be here again next week, likely diving into the recently announced “Service Open,” and continuing to monitor weekly as the Open approaches. Check out @known_knowable on Instagram for daily check-ins.

• THERE’S MORE!: Additional data I’ve been tracking along with a few suggestions from readers and commentators on Instagram.

Open Division – Registration by Region and Division then 10% cut and 25% cut

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NEW! Top 15 Countries, by Athlete Nationality

NEW! Total Affiliate Count 2018-2024

*Note: For these two years the count of registrations for each affiliate is blank so it’s not possible to see if affiliates may have been listed with zero registrations which does show up on ‘22-’24

Top 10 Affiliates Registered for 2024

Registrations by Age Group Divisions