German, Italian Postponements Increase Games Season Uncertainty

Both the CrossFit Italian Showdown and German CrossFit Championship announced Wednesday their events would be postponed. The German Sanctional, originally set for March 28-29 will be postponed to a later date, while the Italian Showdown scheduled for April 24-26 will move their event online and plan to hold their in-person competition at an undetermined future date.

More analysis on these two announcements:

• “Amid Lockdown Italy Changes Sanctional to Online Only, Invites to Remain”
• “CrossFit German Throwdown Postponed due to Coronavirus”

These two announcements came just hours before President Donal Trump suspended all travel from Europe to the U.S. for the next 30 days, except for the UK. Additionally, the NBA suspended its season and the NCAA announced that March Madness would go on but without fans.

One big thing: With three events now postponing, the back half of the season is about to get a little cluttered. There is at least one event every weekend between the Rogue Invitational (May 15-17) and the July 3-5th doubleheader of the Asia CrossFit Championship and the Mayan CrossFit Classic and we don’t have new dates for Italy and Germany yet. The May 22nd weekend is also double-booked between the Down Under CrossFit Championship and the Madrid CrossFit Championship.

• We’ve updated our season calendar to reflect the changes.
• A lot of this is out of organizers’ control. In the cases of Italy and Germany, they had limited to no say in whether to move forward. The local German health authority ordered the event canceled and the Italian government has put their entire country on lockdown until at least April 3; a date that has been described as tenuous.

CrossFit HQ’s Response: CrossFit HQ issued their first public statement concerning the summer CrossFit Games currently scheduled for July 29 – August 2, but made not mention of individually operated Sanctionals.

• “CrossFit will continue to monitor circumstances globally in the coming months and coordinate with Madison, our host community, to communicate information regarding our event.”
• “At this time, with the CrossFit Games more than four months away, event planning procedures include patient observation of the coronavirus (COVID-19). If circumstances closer to the event require action, our teams will coordinate with local authorities and share relevant event information as appropriate.”

Status Update: Upcoming Events Through April. We will update when we have more information.

• March 13-15: CrossFit Atlas Games — Planned as scheduled.
• March 20-22: West Coast Classic — Planned as scheduled.
• March 28-29: CrossFit German Throwdown — Postponed, Date TBD
• April 3-5: Reykjavik CrossFit Championship — Announcing plans today.
• April 8-11: ELFIT CrossFit Championship — Planned as scheduled.
• April 17-19: Mid-Atlantic CrossFit Championship — Planned as scheduled.
• April 24-26: CrossFit Italian Showdown — Postponed, Date TBD