Scoring. The Games use a relative scoring system. That is, athletes are rewarded according to their placing in each event relative to their peers—not according to their absolute performance on that event. Each event will be worth up to 100 points, and athletes earn points based on their finish (see chart).
The CrossFit Games are the world’s premier test to find the Fittest on Earth™. They are world-renowned as a grueling test for the toughest athletes on Earth as well as a thrilling experience for spectators. Since its inception in 2007, the CrossFit Games have become “one of the fastest growing sports in America,” according to Forbes.
The CrossFit Games events are made up of a broad range of functional movements. Functional movements move large loads, long distances, quickly. These movements also form the basis of our exercise program. Make no mistake—the CrossFit Games are designed to test, not train, fitness. The goal is to find the fittest athletes, not to produce an easily replicable workout program.
The Games season is broken up into three stages. The first stage is the Open,This five-week, five-workout competition is held in the winter in CrossFit affiliates and garage gyms around the world. Workouts are released online each Thursday, and athletes have until the following Monday to submit their scores. Anyone who’s at least 14 years old can sign up and join in the first stage of the CrossFit Games season.
The top athletes from each of the 18 worldwide regions qualify for the second stage of the competition—Regionals. The Regionals are live, three-day competitions that are held May through June. Top athletes from two regions combine and compete at one of nine Regionals to earn qualifying spots for the CrossFit Games.
Through the trials presented at Regionals, the fittest 40 men, 40 women and 40 teams earn qualifying spots to the Games. The North American, European and Australasian Regionals each send their top five from each division. The Meridian Regional sends four and Latin America will send one from each division.
The season culminates in the 2018 Reebok CrossFit Games. At this point in the season, the field has been whittled down from hundreds of thousands of athletes in the Open to the world’s fittest 40 men, 40 women, 40 teams, 80 teenagers, and 240 masters. The CrossFit Games rank the world’s fittest and determine who is the Fittest on Earth.
A key element to a fair test of fitness is the unknown and unknowable. Athletes cannot train for what they do not know. At each CrossFit Games competition, athletes engage in a series of challenges unknown to them until right before the events begin. The combination of highly trained athletes and unknown events makes for an explosive mix.