Open Declines Shift Leaderboard, Six New Athletes Invited

Late last night the CrossFit Games team sent out a notice that the first round of Games invites from the 2020 Open had officially finished. They further clarified that following a handful of declines from athletes above the blue line for the top 20 qualifying spots, a second round of invites would be sent out Wednesday.

It’s gonna be a no for me dawg: Six athletes in total — three men and three women — ultimately passed on their individual invites in favor of the team competition instead. That number is up from 2019 when four athletes declined to go team. 

• On the women’s side: Andrea Nisler, Taylor Williamson, and Brooke Haas passed on their invite. Nisler and Williamson have their team spot booked with MisFit P10 Performance after winning the Dubai CrossFit Championship. Haas earned her spot with the ROMWOD Meat Squad at the Filthy 150. 
• For the men: Brandon Luckett, Rich Froning, and Rogelio (Roy) Gamboa declined their individual invites. Luckett’s team, the Odd Squad won the SouthFit CrossFit Challenge, while Gamboa was on the MisFit P10 Performance team in Dubai. Froning and the Mayhem Freedom team have not qualified yet but will be competing at Strength in Depth later this month. 

What happens next: These three men and women will get Open invites. 

• Women: Marykay Dreisilker, Sasha Nievas, and Danielle Brandon.
• Sara Alicia Fernandez Costas, who is the first athlete below the blue line, is the national champion of Spain and thus the invite will continue to be passed down.
• Brandon, who technically received the Sanctionals invite for the Mayhem Classic on Sunday, will pass that invite down to next in line Feeroozah Saghafi. Here’s Saghafi’s reaction to learning that she’d receive the invite from Mayhem.
• Men: Sean Sweeney, Connor Duddy, and Brent Fikowski. Willy Georges sits just below Sweeney on the leaderboard but will pass the invite down by virtue of being the French national champion.
• With Fikowski getting the invite through the Open, the Dubai invite will pass to 9th place finisher Tola Morakinyo.
• None of the second round invite athletes are expected to decline their invites, which should put a bow on the top 20 spots for the 2020 Open.