Last week, CrossFit HQ announced a list of several athletes that were issued penalties for 20.1. These penalties not only shuffled up the Open leaderboard drastically, but also knocked some big-time CrossFit Games athletes out of the Open.
Since CrossFit HQ’s announcement, top CrossFit Games athletes, and other athletes affected by the penalties have been responding to the news on their social channels.
What Happened
Throughout the CrossFit Open, the top 40 women and 40 men on the overall worldwide leaderboard each week are required to submit videos of themselves doing the workout for review. After the review of Open Workout 20.1, major penalties were issued to seven athletes. Additionally, a handful of other athletes received penalties for false starts. In total, 26 athletes were issued penalties for 20.1.
Who Was Affected With Major Penalties
- Samantha Briggs – lack of extension during the ground-to-overheads and single-foot jumps during the burpees
- Cédric Lapointe – lack of extension during the ground-to-overheads
- Frederik Aegidius – single-foot jumps during the burpees
- Aaron Rabin – lack of extension during the ground-to-overheads
- Dane Smith – single-foot jumps during the burpees
- Luka Vunjak – single-foot jumps during the burpees
- Lazar Dukic – lack of extension during the ground-to-overheads
What They’re Saying
Samantha Briggs
Samantha Briggs is a six-time CrossFit Games competitor, and winner of the Games in 2013. She posted on her Instagram page following the penalty announcement and said she takes full responsibility for the penalty. With the penalty, Briggs went from 8th place to 84th overall. She wrote,
I take full responsibility for CrossFit’s penalty
It was on me to ensure that the standards were clearly met
This ultimately means me qualifying through the open this year is near impossible but I’ll still put my self through the remaining 3 workouts along with you guys
This just means I’ll be bringing the fire to the sanctioned events where I’ll be fighting for my ticket to The Games.
Frederik Aegidius
Aegidius is a four-time Reebok CrossFit Games competitor and has been posting a fair amount on his Instagram since the news broke. Similar to Briggs, this penalty knocks him out of qualifying through the Open. He wrote in one of his posts that he plans to use the rest of the Open season to build up momentum for the rest of the 2020 season.
Don’t fly too close to the sun.
As athletes in a competitive setting we always strive to do the required work as fast as we can. In order to do so, you move as close as you can to the line and unfortunately I ended up overstepping. I did not meet the standards on 20.1 and that’s 100% my own fault.
CrossFit Games athlete Cédric Lapointe hasn’t shareed anything on his social media yet, but other athletes that were given penalties like Dane Smith, have shared their opinions and thoughts.
These penalties have affected the Open leaderboard pretty significantly, so it will be interesting to see how the rest of the workouts shake up in the next couple of weeks.
Feature images from @clapointe97, @bicepslikebriggs, and @frederikaegidius Instagram pages.
