Athletes Pick Their Poison in Event Twist at Dubai CrossFit Championship

Did the Dubai CrossFit Championship just let its athletes pick two workouts?

Two ominous-looking fishbowls filled with scraps of paper stood on a sleek brown table inside the Jumeirah Creekside Hotel in Dubai. Seven-time CrossFit Games team athlete Andrea Nisler and the United Arab Emirates’ fittest man Mahmood Shalan made their way to the front of the room as nearly two dozen athletes looked on in anticipation. Just what was going on? 

Randomly picked from the pool of competitors, organizers from the Dubai CrossFit Championship threw a massive twist into its 2021 edition by letting a male and a female athlete pick the two workouts for Event 6. 

Of course, in typical CrossFit fashion, both Nisler and Shalan decided to make the decision in a democratic fashion and instantly reverted to their fellow CrossFitters for input, picking the two workouts by committee. 

Although there were some heated discussions about the workouts inside the room, in the end they came together and were able to decide. Nisler’s Part “A” for Event 6 is a couplet of 21-15-9 calories on the Rogue Echo Bike and toe-to-bars. Shalan’s Part “B” was also a couplet, featuring 21-15-9 calories on the rower and bar-facing burpees.

Event 6A
21-15-9
Cal Echo Bike
Toes-to-bar
Time Cap: 6 minutes

**1 min rest before Event 6B**

Event 6B
21-15-9
Cal row
Bar facing burpees
Time Cap: 6 minutes

Why it matters: Could Dubai be potentially paving the way for more of these types of twists? The sport has flirted with the idea of letting athletes, and fans, pick workouts in the past.

• The closest we’ve seen something of this magnitude so far was during the 2018 CrossFit season when Dave Castro gave participants of the Open the chance to vote on what they wanted to see for Open workout 18.5. Castro allowed fans to vote on what order they wanted to see athletes complete Bicouplet 1 and Bicouplet 2.
• Rich Froning presented a scenario in which teams would “draft” from a list of workouts at Mayhem Madness, a team-only event that he was hosting after the team division was canceled during the 2020 Games. That competition was eventually canceled as well.