Last week, CrossFit HQ announced that the fifth place team in the CrossFit Meridian Regional could face disqualification due to a violation of team eligibility. This news broke on Instagram when CrossFit Riviera shared that Justin Bergh from CrossFit HQ had reached out about their violation of 1.18 in regards to team eligibility from the Rulebook.
Earlier today, this news was made official by CrossFit HQ in an announcement bringing light to the disqualification of CrossFit Riviera. This disqualification will now move the sixth place finisher CrossFit Galileo to the fifth spot to attend the 2018 Reebok CrossFit Games.
So what is 1.18 and what do the Rulebook say? We’ve included the official statement from the Rulebook below.
1.18 – COACHES OR TRAINERS COMPETING ON A TEAM
Being a trainer or coach at a gym does not automatically qualify that individual to compete for that gym. The trainer must train at the team location in accordance with all team eligibility rules. However, athletes who train at one affiliate or gym and coach at another (or others) must be careful not to blur the line between where they train and where they coach or they may have their eligibility as team athletes challenged, potentially resulting in the disqualification of the athlete and/or team.
Below, we’ve embedded CrossFit Riviera’s thoughts from the announcement that they shared on their Instagram post,
“To all our supporters, fans, friends and family
With a heavy heart and with great disappointment, our team CrossFit Riviera was informed today, by the Director of the CrossFit Games, Justin Bergh, that our team, according to their best judgement, stands in violation of one of the points in the rule book and hence has been disqualified for the 2018 Games season. We would like to take a minute to explain the situation to all of you who cheered for us, who supported us and everyone that made us push harder than we could have ever done just by ourselves.
Point 1.18 of the rulebook states that only one member of the team can be on official licensee of a CrossFit affiliate. In our case, this used to only be Mareck for CrossFit Riviera. At the beginning of the year, Cynthia filed for her own affiliate and her request was approved much quicker than anticipated. Hence the violation of rule 1.18. However, as further stated in the rule book there is an exception to the clause which we firmly believed and still believe applied to our team.
As a result, our team has been disqualified for an administrative and not a performance based reason. This however does not diminish the fact that our whole team has sacrificed a lot to get to the point where we are today. We are sad and disappointed that none of our arguments were able to convince CrossFit HQ otherwise.
As a team, we are only left to accept the decision of CrossFit HQ and wish all the teams competing at the 2018 Games the best of luck. We will be back, stronger, more powerful and motivated than ever.
Yours truly, Mareck, Aurelie, Chris, Cynthia”
Feature image from @cfrivierateam Instagram page.