Games Day Lay of the Land

We’re 48 hours away from the start of the 2019 Reebok CrossFit Games, and things onsite at the Alliant Energy Center and around the city of Madison are starting to heat up.

For the last two days athletes from the world over have been checking in and collecting their official games gear in prep for what should be one of the most important events in CrossFit Games history on Thursday to start the competition. 

The big difference this year is very little is known in terms of schedule and structure, and even less is known about the events themselves. Dave Castro has been onsite with the Demo Team testing workouts, but has yet to reveal a single detail. Still, there is plenty to get caught up on at home to make sure you’re up to date on all the info for this year’s competition.

Individuals

For the first time since the Games moved to Madison, zero events have been revealed at the start of Games week. Here’s what we know so far:

• There is an athlete dinner scheduled Tuesday evening, that the press is invited to for the athlete’s arrival between 5pm and 6:15pm CST. This is a dinner where typically details about at least one event are revealed.
• Based on the CrossFit Games App, competition is scheduled to start at 9am CST at the North Park Venue.
• After the first event, the individual field of men and women will be cut to 75 athletes in each division. 
• Once the field is cut to 75 athletes, it will then be cut to 50, 40, 30, 20, and then finally to 10 athletes, however, the timing of the cuts is not fully known.
• Competition isn’t scheduled in the Coliseum until 3pm CST on Friday.
• The scoring tables will change with each cut, and you can view the full list of tables here. We’ve also analyzed some potential impacts of this further along in the competition.
• Dave Castro posted to Instagram a photo of Dan Bailey, potentially testing a workout, at the top of a bar muscle-up.

Teams

Similar to individuals, no events have been announced but despite there only being 14 teams in the field, it’s probably the most competitive field to date. 

• The field of teams will be cut down to eleven, then nine, seven, and finally five teams, making it the tightest team competition in terms of cuts leaving little room for error.
• Half the field of teams have at least three individual Games athletes competing on their roster, with four teams fielding a roster made entirely of former individual Games athletes.
• CrossFit Mayhem and X-Terminators top the list of most Games appearances, each with a combined 17 total.
• Team scoring tables will also change after each cut, and you can find the tables here.

Age Groups

• Age Group competition isn’t slated to start until Friday, and competition will run three days through Sunday.
• The field of athletes has been cut in half from previous years, with only ten athletes competing in each division.
• The Age Group competition will not be streamed this year. 

The prize purses for most divisions have shifted slightly and you can get the breakdown of prize money in each division here.