Clarification On The Open Leaderboard

Yesterday, after the 2020 Open leaderboard was officially finalized we reported on some of the initial takeaways now that the video review has concluded and the national champions for each country have been crowned. It’s come to our attention after various discussions around the community that there’s still some confusion around some of the implications and next steps of the leaderboard being solidified and invites being sent out. We’ve included some additional info below to help clear up the uncertainty.

• It has begun: Qualification invitations have been sent out already and as we speak athletes are declining or accepting their spots which will begin the backfill process. Backfill invites typically are sent after the initial invitation round deadline comes to a close (Monday, January 13 at 5:00 PM).
• Sanctioned event invitations and their subsequent backfill process won’t be made official until all additional rounds of Open qualification invites have concluded in the coming weeks.
• History Lesson: We explained how Patrick Vellner could be the overall Open champion but not the Canadian National champion, but this isn’t the first time this has happened. In 2011, Dan Bailey was worldwide winner for the first ever Open, but finished second in the Central East region behind Rich Froning under an identical circumstance.

National champions update: Initially when the national champions list was published, Iran was left off the list but has since been added despite not meeting the criteria for qualification by having an affiliate in good standing within the country.

• A similar exemption was granted to the Iranian national champions in the 2019 Open and Games in “the spirit inclusivity,” and the male champion Payam Saljoughian made the trip to Madison where he finished 98th.  The Iranian exemption is extended to the 2020 Games as well.
• The CrossFit Games organizers are looking to extend similar exemptions this year for more countries like Bolivia and Kazakhstan. Bolivia sent both male and female national champions to the Games in 2019.

In previous years, icons were added to the Open leaderboard to signify whether athletes had accepted or declined their Games invitation. In the potential absence of this feature this year, the Games leaderboard, instead, could be used to track the most up-to-date list of athletes. We’ll continue to scour the leaderboard and provide any updates going forward.