With 359 registered athletes, CrossFit NYC is the largest team in the 2013 Open.
The results are in.
CrossFit NYC sealed the title “World’s Largest Team.” The 1400-member gym from Manhattan, N.Y., blew away the competition by registering 359 athletes. The runner-up, Trident CrossFit of Alexandria, Va., followed in distant second with two thirds the number of registered athletes (246).
How, you may ask, did CrossFit NYC build the world’s largest team?
Surprisingly, the answer is that they tried to get fewer athletes to register, the owner and team captain Hari Singh explains.
“Last year, we really pushed the Open, but then we actually had to get everyone who signed up through the (Open Workouts), logistically … The Games rules say that affiliates are required to abide by the ‘spirit’ of the rules. We felt that to maintain the spirit of the Open, we needed to control the number of people we registered, so we could get the judging right,” Singh says.
“(W)hile we could easily get over 1000 members registered this year if we pushed, (we decided that) we could only judge 300 to 400 of them at the professional level we wanted to maintain. So we shot to stay in that range.”
It worked. CrossFit NYC had a much lower percentage of their members sign up for the Open this year (25 percent) compared with last year (65 percent). To maintain the highest level of judging possible, CrossFit NYC will only allow their 80 CrossFit Level 1 Certificate holders to act as judges. Also, NYC will limit each heat to 12 competitors.
While the judging will be strict, the competitors from CrossFit NYC have a lot to look forward to. As the World’s Largest Team, CrossFit NYC will receive 100 tickets to the 2013 CrossFit Games in Carson, Calif., and have their affiliate fee waived for life.
“We are going to give a free ticket to every member who participated in the Open who wants to attend the Games,” Singh says.
NYC plans on giving any left over tickets to the other large teams.
The World’s Ten Largest Teams
1. CrossFit NYC (359)
2. Trident CrossFit (246)
3. Diablo CrossFit Blanco (241)
4. CrossFit YUL (236)
5. Brick Republic (228)
6. CrossFit 1525 (223)
7. Team CrossFit Central (203)
8. River North CrossFit (197)
9. CrossFit Costa Mesa (195)
9. CrossFit Glasgow (195)
Competition for the "Region's Largest Team"
The competition, of course, isn’t limited to the worldwide Leaderboard. Over the last few weeks, teams jostled for the title “Region’s Largest Team.”
In some regions, the competition was incredibly tight. In the North West, CrossFit Coeur d’Alene beat CrossFit Meridian by just one athlete!
Check out your region’s largest team now, because you’ll certainly see them at the Regional. Each region’s largest team will pack the stands, as they have won 150 tickets to the Regional, or one ticket per registered athlete.
Below, you can see the winners as well as the teams that gave them a run for the title.
Africa
LARGEST TEAM: Team CrossFit Jozi (109)
2. CrossFit B4C (67)
3. CrossFit Platinum (56)
Asia
LARGEST TEAM: CrossFit Misawa (67)
2. Shogun CrossFit (62)
3. CrossFit Hub (55)
Australia
LARGEST TEAM: Wiser1 CrossFit Warriors (137)
2. CrossFit Brisbane (119)
3. CrossFit Central Willington (101)
Canada East
LARGEST TEAM: CrossFit YUL (236)
2. Equipe CrossFit Laval (171)
3. CrossFit FirePower 2 (147)
Canada West
LARGEST TEAM: Synergy Strength B (156)
2. CrossFit Ramsay (135)
3. CrossFit 306 (128)
Central East
LARGEST TEAM: CrossFit New Albany (176)
2. CrossFit Polaris (143)
3. CrossFit Rutherford Too (126)
Europe
LARGEST TEAM: CrossFit Glasgow (185)
2. CrossFit Reykjavik (150)
3. Team Aarhus CrossFit (110)
Latin America
LARGEST TEAM: CrossFit SP (141)
2. CrossFit Brasil (111)
3. CrossFit Guayaquil (79)
Mid Atlantic
LARGEST TEAM: Trident CrossFit (246)
2. Patriot CrossFit (157)
3. CrossFit Oldtown (135)
North Central
LARGEST TEAM: River North CrossFit (197)
2. CrossFit Chicago Black (156)
3. CrossFit NWA (148)
North East
LARGEST TEAM: CrossFit NYC (359)
2. Teenage Mutant Ninja Team 5th Ave (166)
3. CrossFit Southie II (163)
NorCal
LARGEST TEAM: Diablo CrossFit Blanco (241)
2. Lifeworx (135)
3. CrossFit East Sacramento B Team (111)
North West
LARGEST TEAM: CrossFit Coeur d’Alene (175)
2. CrossFit Meridian (174)
3. CrossFit Salem (158)
South Central
LARGEST TEAM: CrossFit 1525 (223)
2. Team CrossFit Central (203)
3. C4 CrossFit (160)
South East
LARGEST TEAM: CrossFit Integrity (166)
2. FireBase Infidels (162)
3. Caution CrossFit (135)
SoCal
LARGEST TEAM: Brick Republic (228)
2. CrossFit Costa Mesa (185)
3. Team CrossFit Horsepower (169)
South West
LARGEST TEAM: Roots (145)
2. CrossFit Verve (136)
3. MBS CrossFit (111)
Want to see how your team stacked up? Go to the Leaderboard and select "team," "roster," and your region. The Leaderboard will then sort the teams by size and provide the number of registered athletes in parentheses by each team's rank.