Nearly 200,000 CrossFit Open Participants From 2024 Did Not Return in 2025

CrossFit is observable, measurable, and repeatable. Over the years, a repeat workout in the Open can tell an athlete a lot about their fitness and skill work. The same goes for Open registration comparisons. 

In 2022, 254,118 athletes (87% of registrants) submitted a score for 22.3. For this year’s repeat, 199,174 (85%) submitted a score.

Digging a little deeper: Of the nearly 294,000 athletes who registered for the 2022 Open, only 78,306 registered this year. 

• While some of those athletes may still have repeated the workout in their gym, their official score will not be on the leaderboard.

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Notable Athletes From 22.3 Who Didn’t Register for 25.2

Scott Tetlow, who won 22.3, did not register for the 2025 Open. In an Instagram comment, he shared that he is dealing with an injury.

• For the top three women from 22.3, only Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr, who came in second, returned this year. Both Mallory O’Brien, who won 22.3, and Kara Saunders, who was third worldwide, did not register. O’Brien’s time of 4:11 remains unbeaten three years later.

Note: I calculated the total number of 215,506 by comparing the entire registration list from 2022 to the current registration list from 2025. 

• Neither the 2022 nor 2025 numbers include Adaptive athletes who would have registered for the Open in 2022 and now register through WheelWOD, making them a like-for-like set of lists.

Speaking of repeating. It’s time to look at an important statistic we analyzed last year – “new vs returning” athletes.

New vs. Returning Athletes

About this time last year, I published the eighth installment of the 2024 Open Report, which examined who was a brand-new athlete registering for the Open and who was a “returning” athlete. 

• A returning athlete, in my analysis, means any athlete who registers for the current year and whose CrossFit ID is present in a previous year. 
• If an athlete registered in 2011 and didn’t register again until 2025, they would be included here as a “returning” athlete. The same is true for athletes who registered in 2024 and 2025.

Obviously, everyone was considered “new” in 2011 — but from there, momentum grew. 

It seems like an impossible figure of hundreds of thousands of new athletes each year, year over year, from 2015 through 2024. But did it continue?

Here is a continuation of that same chart, updated for 2025:

For the first time, the amount of “new athletes” who registered for the Open is under 28% of the total. The 2020 CrossFit Open, which took place in the fall of 2019, is the only other year in that range at just a hair over 28%.

This year, there are 65,439 new athletes versus 169,247 returning athletes from either the 2024 Open or previous years.

At the same time, as the total number of new athletes shrank significantly, so did the returning athlete pool. 

Let’s break down the 65,000 new athletes and 169,000 returning athletes a bit further.

2025 CrossFit Open Attrition and Growth

In 2024, 343,496 athletes competed in the Open. In 2025, only 42% of them (143,790 athletes) returned from the previous year.

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Note: This chart was created by taking a side-by-side registration list of the 2024 total registration list and comparing it to the current total registration list for 2025.

Nearly 200,000 athletes who registered for the 2024 Open did not return for 2025.

Additionally, while 143,790 athletes from 2024 returned for 2025, only 26,074 returned from previous seasons. For example, Rich Froning Jr. did not register for the 2024 Open but registered for all other years from 2011-2025. 

That means there are 65,439 athletes who are brand new to the Open in 2025. Welcome!

Added all together, that gets us to the 235,303 athletes in total who have registered so far for the 2025 season.

By the Numbers – The New CrossFit Athlete

• The average age of first-time registrants in 2025 is 34.7 years old. This aligns with what we saw back in February: The Open Report, Week 2:  A “Young Sport” Gets Older. 
• The oldest “new” athlete in 2025 is 93 years old.
• In terms of region:
  • 33.4% of first-time registrations in 2025 were from the United States
  • 8.8% from France
  • 7.8% from the United Kingdom
  • 5.3% from South Korea.
• By gender, 51.4% of new registrants are male. 
• 89.4% of new registrations list a CrossFit affiliate in their profile. 

Are you new here? Then, you are part of the numbers below.

Open Report – Weekly Update 7

The data below is up to date through the submission deadline of Week 2 on Monday, March 10, at 8 p.m. ET.

Based on Age Group Divisions

Based on Competitive Region

Past 4 Years – Worm Chart

• The chart above, which is a year-over-year comparison chart counting down to the submission date for XX.1, now has 2023 data as well as 2022. Note: 2022 only includes the ‘Open’ division, not the 14-15 or 55+ age group divisions or Adaptive divisions.

At the time of publication, the current registration totals would equate to $2,353,030 in total prize money, divided into the following categories:

Games – Individual	$1,152,984.70
Games – Teams	$235,303.00
Open – Individual	$117,651.50
Open – Affiliate	$470,606.00
Masters Games	$235,303.00
Adaptive Games	$70,590.90
Online Semifinal	$70,590.90

Fittest on Earth Prize: $288,246.18

Individual Games – Podium Prizes

• 2nd place: $57,649.24
• 3rd place: $46,119.39

Affiliate Cup Prize: $70,590.90

Open Podium – Overall Individual:

• 1st place: $14,706.44
• 2nd place: $8,823.86
• 3rd place: $5,882.58

We will continue to track these numbers through 25.3 next week.

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Featured image: Mike Halpin, @known_knowable / Instagram