Stage 1 Set, International Functional Fitness Championship Starts Friday

A select group of CrossFit and functional fitness athletes from all over the world will be competing this weekend in the International Functional Fitness Federation (iF3) Continental Cup. The online competition takes place December 11-13 as a replacement for the iF3 World Championships, which were canceled due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. 

One big thing: The Continental Cup has created another opportunity for the top CrossFit Games athletes to compete during the global pandemic. Kristin Holte (Norway), Khan Porter (Australia), Melina Rodriguez (Argentina), Jacqueline Dahlstrøm (Norway), Jessica Coughlan (Australia), Omar Martinez (Venezuela), Nicolay Billaudel (Norway), João Ferreira (Portugal) and 15-year old Emma Lawson (Canada) are just some of the athletes with Games appearances that will be representing their country this weekend.

The details: Top athletes were selected by each of the iF3’s National Federation members to represent their country in the competition. 

• For this weekend’s preliminary round, countries have been placed into four Continental groupings based on their geographic location. Those groupings are the Americas (North and South), West Europe, East Europe and a grouping of countries from Asia, Australia and Africa.
• Athletes in their respective groups will compete against others in their Continental grouping in an effort to earn a spot to the Intercontinental finals the weekend of December 19. 
• In both the Preliminary and Final rounds athletes are assigned a two-hour time slot in which they have to complete six tests. 
• The top three individual men, individual women, and teams in each continental group will move on to the final round. 
• Teams will compete on Friday, Individual Women on Saturday, and Individual Men on Sunday. 
• Results and Performances will be held and broadcast on the iF3 Youtube Channel 24-hours after the conclusion of each group.
• A live leaderboard will be available and is powered by Boxpeak.
• Individual athletes are competing to earn an automatic spot to next year’s iF3 World Championships in November in Australia. 
• Both Team and Individual winners will receive a prize package. 

The bottom line: The iF3 has shown that they are serious about making functional fitness a legitimate global sport and an Olympic sport in the near future. Instead of cancelling their events during the pandemic they instead have worked with the member countries to come up with a competition that they can safely and fairly have. This year’s rosters feature more Games veterans than ever before and will help in gaining the federation momentum in achieving their goals.