Days until the 2024 CrossFit Open: -14!
Days until the 2024 CrossFit Quarterfinals: 34
What Was Your First Open Like?
Do you remember that day? I remember mine.
I started CrossFit in my garage, as many people may have, in 2020 after my local YMCA shut down. I picked up random workouts to do from Instagram.
By the end of 2020, I signed up for Mayhem Athlete programming, had watched all the Games documentaries and Behind the Scenes, and was excited for my first Open.
In November 2020, four months before the Open, I broke my wrist in a mountain boarding accident and had surgery a couple of days before Christmas. For whatever reason, while sitting in rehab in early January, slowly stretching my wrist, I had the bright idea to use the Open as a goal to get back into action. Pro tip: don’t do this; consult your doctor.
Beyond the literal stretch goal, I signed up to be part of something larger than “me in my garage” and to push myself to do something “For Time” that I knew would be challenging.
A lot of rehab and wrist stretching from January through early March, cut to:
Friday, March 11 — 21.1
Standing in my garage, having never done a wall walk before and with no chance at double-unders, I scaled my first-ever Open workout. Short wall walks and single-unders, I pushed myself not to quit after seeing wrist-heavy movements.
- Time: 11:55 (scaled) — 96,523rd place
Friday, March 18 — 21.2
I only had adjustable dumbbells, but I like burpee box jumpovers. I ran to Dick’s Sporting Goods to buy a single 50-pound dumbbell to do my first Rx Open workout. I completed 50 dumbbell snatches on a 2.5-month post-surgery wrist, hitting the timecap just before starting the last 15 burpee box jumpovers.
- Reps: 210 — 67,022nd place
Friday, March 25 — 21.3 & 21.4
I wasn’t expecting a two-parter. I honestly didn’t know that was a possibility. Having never done more than a couple of toes-to-bar and chest-to-bar or a single-bar muscle-up and not feeling confident about all those thrusters or front squats, I scaled again.
I had to do the front squats with my arms crossed because I could hold my wrist in the front rack (it still gives me problems). I powered through on that 65-pound barbell and all the hanging knee raises and pull-ups and then slowly moved through the 30 chest-to-bar pull-ups to finish with seven seconds left on the clock.
- Time: 14:53 (scaled) — 87,529th place
The only thing between me and finishing my first Open was one deadlift, one clean, one hang clean, and one jerk. My wrist was being a real jerk, screaming at me. I got up to 115 pounds, and my first Open ended.
- Weight: 115 pounds — 96,543rd place.
If you want to see what 90,153rd place looks like, all four workouts are available on the CrossFit Games site. Trust me; you don’t want to see what that looks like. It’s ugly. But I loved it, and I am proud of it.
[Related: Caitlin Stevenson: From 350 Pounds Bodyweight and Bariatric Surgery to the CrossFit Open]
Do You Have a Story of Your First Year?
I’d love to hear about it. In the next 24-72 hours, for many, their first Open will come to an end. Hopefully, with a lot to be proud of and a lot to work on for the next competition. Whether the next competition is the 2025 Open or finding ways to compete and drive intensity in the gym daily.
This idea of being a new athlete in the Open had me deeply dive into something after I happened upon a figure. Here is the initial figure I posted on my Instagram story the other day, @Known_Knowable:
2023 Open Total Registrations — 322,670
- 2023 Open Athlete / Did not register in 2024 — 142,277
- 2023 Open Athlete — Did Register in 2024 — 180,393
2024 Open Total Registrations — 342,792
- 2024 Open Athlete / Did not register in 2023 — 162,399
- 2024 Open Athlete — Did Register in 2023 — 180,393
Between 2023 and 2024, there were only 180,393 athletes who competed in both years. That means the turnover rate for Open registration is nearly half the field.
This figure is only partially true. It only looks back a single year, so it takes anyone who didn’t compete in 2023 as a “New Athlete” when there are plenty. For example, Taylor Self put out two blazing-fast 24.1 and 24.2 performances. He didn’t compete in 2023 but has competed for years in the Open and the Games season.
That Led Me to a Fact-Finding Mission
If only someone had an account of every season Open registration and who was truly a ‘New Athlete’ and a ‘Returning Athlete’ from the inaugural Open in 2011 through 24.2 last week. If only…
After two days off and on of pulling data from CrossFit and putting it into a nearly 600MB Excel file, I have every registration from 2011-2024 (up to 24.2) across millions of athletes. I can pinpoint when an individual athlete started in the Open, if they ever missed a year, and even if they changed affiliates.
Here is what that looks like on the backend using my friend, Joe Genetin-Pilawa. Joe started the Open in 2017, so using his CrossFit ID, I can see which years he registered and did not, which I indicated as ‘NEW.’ Other athletes, as you can see, have no history before 2024 while a small few go all the way back to 2011.
That all gets compiled down to present this single chart:
Obviously, in 2011, everyone is considered new, even if you had done CrossFit since the early 2000s it was everyone’s first Open. From there, momentum grew.
What seems like an impossible figure of hundreds of thousands of new athletes each year shows out year over year from 2015 through today.
This Is What the CrossFit Games Lives On
This is also churn that gyms see on a monthly and annual basis. Look around your gym; how many were there in March 2023 versus March 2024? I hope they are there in March 2025.
We can see that the Games are gaining new athletes and bringing previous athletes back. It’s close to the all-time high of 2018 when looking at “Return Athletes.”
That’s the stickiness that CrossFit needs to keep momentum going and growing.
- From 2011-2024, 462 athletes registered for every year of the Open.
- Noah Ohlsen and Maddie Sturt are on the top of that list and still killin’ it today!
These “New Athlete” figures got a few odd comments and DMs from the tin-foil hat wearers in the CrossFit space.
Is CrossFit buying bots??
How could they have such an influx of new registrations in 2024, let alone year after year? No, they aren’t buying bots. This is how other mass sporting events look; they live on that year-over-year (YoY) churn.
It’s hard to talk about who is new without touching on who isn’t. 2024 is a weird year; it feels like we are missing many friends as we wait for the 3..2..1…Go!
Some Popular Names Aren’t In the 2023 Open
In some cases, the reasoning is known, or at least the athlete has addressed stepping away or working through an injury. I wanted to share some athletes who have historically done the Open but are not registered for Open 2024. This doesn’t include athletes who may have registered and bowed out before or after the 2024 Open started.
Athlete Name (Recent Games/Notable Appearance)
- Mal O’Brien (’22 Women) | Kelly Baker (’23 Women) | Sola Sigurdardottir (’22 Women)
- Emma Cary (’23 Women) | Alexis Johnson (’23 Team) | Alexia Williams (’23 Women)
- Taylor Williamson (’23 Team) | Michelle Basnett (’23 Women) | Erin Habeck (O’Donnell) (’23 Team)
- Svetlana Veselova (’23 35-39 5th) | Kristi O’Connell (’22 Women) | Allison Weiss (’16 16-17 1st) | Shahad Budebs (’23 Women)
- Sam Briggs (‘23 40-44 1st) | Leka Fineman (’23 55-59 1st) | Susan Clarke (‘23 60-64; note: Susan only does odd years. See you next year, Susan!)
- Reggie Fasa (‘23 Open 9th) | Andre Houdet (’23 Team) | Scott Panchik (’23 35-39 4th)
- Rich Froning Jr. (’22 Team, 4x Fittest Man on Earth; 6x Team Champion) | Mitchell Stevenson (’21 Team) | Hamza Abdalfatah (’19 Men)
- Bryan Wong (’23 35-39 3rd) | Tadhg Lawless (’18 16-17 14th) | Ste Fawcett (’23 35-39 9th)
- Julian Alcaraz (’15 Men / Street Parking) | Sean Patrick (’23 50-54 2nd) | Kevin Koester (’23 55-59 1st)
- Ryan Joe Hamby (’23 55-59 3rd) | Lincoln Lafaver (’23 14-15 2nd)
Everyone has a story; I won’t read into any of these.
I have heard that a few are working through physical or mental hurdles and plan to return. I hope to see them back competing or finding ways to continue the methodology of CrossFit; finding ways to challenge themselves and build that into the family, friends, and community. That’s what the Open is about, regardless of whether or not your name is on the leaderboard.
Are You a New Athlete in 2024?
Count yourself as part of the numbers below for week eight of Open registration tracking: Reminder: Dates and info for the 2024 Open:
- Registration started on January 9 at noon PT
- Open Workout 24.1 starts on February 29 at noon PT
- Open Workout 24.3 ends on March 18 at 5 p.m. PT
That gives us a window of 52 total days for registration before the first workout plus 19 days between workouts 24.1 and 24.3.
- Check out the 2024 Open Schedule
(Editor’s Note: Credit: Morning Chalk Up. All data within this report for the 2024 CrossFit Open was pulled from the CrossFit leaderboard on Monday, March 4 at 2:00 p.m. ET. We have stopped officially counting new registrations until the end of the Open.
The 2024 registration total grew at an average rate of around 5,951 each day after the initial day-one total of 20,982. Check out @known_knowable on Instagram for daily check-ins.
Every Number Counts!
I’ve been tracking additional data and a few suggestions from readers and commentators on Instagram.
NEW! Workout Breakdown by Men and Women for 24.1 and 24.2.
The Individual divisions are athletes that would have the Rx weight and movements. For example, the 50-/35-pound dumbbell in 24.1 and the 185-/125-pound barbell in 24.2. ‘Non-Individual’ divisions are the age group divisions with a scaled weight or movement as part of their Rx version.
2024 Open Division – Registration by Region and Division, then 10% Cut and 25% Cut
I have added what a one percent move would take, so moving from 26 percent to 25 percent for North America East Men would be approximately 627 spots.
MEN
WOMEN
Top 15 Countries by Athlete Nationality
Total Affiliate Count 2018-2024
*Note: For these two years, the count of registrations for each affiliate is blank, so it’s not possible to see if affiliates may have been listed with zero registrations, which does show up on ‘22-’24.
Top 10 Affiliates Registered for 2024
*Note: SuperForce CrossFit appears to be a 16 location franchise across different areas of Brazil. It appears that they are submitting all registrations under a single affiliate on the leaderboard.
Top 10 Ages of Registered Athletes
Registrations by Age Group Divisions
Featured image courtesy of Gina Cafiero.
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