The last year has been full of bright moments as well as some extremely heavy ones. As the chief team covering the community and sport of CrossFit, we at Morning Chalk Up never take our responsibilities lightly.
We have been honored to keep you informed over the last 12 months by sharing the most important news of the day, whether it’s devastating, inspiring, motivating, educational, or even controversial.
So, to wrap up 2024, we thought we’d give you a little insight into the news we brought you all year long about the stories, athletes, volunteers, heroes, and everything in between within the CrossFit ecosystem.
Morning Chalk Up’s Year in Review, by the Numbers
- Over the year, the Morning Chalk Up sent 266 editions of our free newsletter (as of December 24) — totaling 19,000,000 emails.
As you may notice, our newsletter directs readers to Barbend.com, where readers can explore storylines and related topics.
- You popped over to Barbend.com almost 2 million times this year to read our interviews, profiles, community highlights, and deep dives into the industry.
Bringing you three stories per day is no easy feat, but we have the very best team of writers interviewing athletes, coaches, and professionals in our space and delivering articles on the daily.
- This year, we brought on two new writers – Scott Freymond and Dave Charlton of Fran Lung Analytics. These two added to our existing team of writers, including Teaganne Finn, Emily Beers, Andie Gonzales, Sarah Appleby, and Julia Papworth.
In addition to folks like Ben Bergeron, EC Synkowski, Jason Ackerman, and Jason Fernandez, we brought on contributors like Jared Enderton, John Wooley, Justin Adams of RX Gymnastics Training, and Mike Halpin of Known & Knowable.
- Twenty journalists contributed to our written content, producing over 1,000 articles. Emily Beers clocked the most on the team, like always.
Our coverage of Lazar Ðukić’s tragic death on August 8 and the related stories afterward were some of our most read of the year, and this was nothing that we took lightly.
- With every story that we wrote about the Ðukić family, countless tears were shed by those of us who turned them in. We did our very best to remain professional in our recounting of events and facts, knowing that our delivery of such heavy news was impacting so many of our readers.
On the social media side, many of our most shared posts were concerning Lazar and his family. It just goes to illustrate the love our community had for him and the ongoing support they have for Luka.
Another major storyline that gained traction on social media was Haley Adams’ comeback and her first in-person event of the season at Syndicate Crown.
Posts about other comebacks — including Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr, Gui Malheiros, and Maddie Sturt — were also some of the most popular of the year.
With over 1,200 posts imagined, designed, and written, we welcomed close to 40,000 new friends to our Instagram community on @morningchalkup and on Facebook combined.
- While there have been some minor changes to the Morning Chalk Up team this year, our core team has remained the same, with Joe Genetin-Pilawa as our Managing Editor and Nicky Freymond as our Social Media Manager.
It’s impossible to quantify the highlights and shoutouts we were able to help echo community-wide.
Collectively, we all threw down at hundreds of local competitions, gave at least a million chalky high fives (don’t fact-check that one), and sweat in spaces and with people we hold dear.
Readers like you give us countless ideas, inspiration, and fuel to keep pushing forward in this ever-changing industry, even through the darkest times we all faced this year.
See you in 2025, and thank you so much for being here.
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- Semifinal Veteran Alison Scudds Readies Herself for 2025 Season and Another Run at CrossFit Games Glory
- A CrossFit Christmas Special: Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr, Brooke Wells, and More Share Their Favorite Holiday Movies
