CrossFit announced the CrossFit Games finals are moving to the Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas. Individual and team athletes will complete their championships at the new location from Aug. 8-11, 2024.
Now, CrossFit is excited to announce three new partnerships that will help grow the CrossFit Games championship competition and create new opportunities to shine a spotlight on athletes across all divisions. WheelWOD Games, Pit Teen Throwdown, and Legends will host the adaptive and age-group championships for the 2024 CrossFit Games season. The change will dramatically increase the number of masters and teenage athletes competing in the finals, nearly double the number of divisions for adaptive athletes, and provide a chance for CrossFit to evolve its competition model to make the CrossFit Games internationally scalable in the future.
As CrossFit General Manager of Sport and Education Dave Castro explained, the changes “will benefit each division in significant ways, most importantly more than doubling qualifying spots for masters and teens and allowing every adaptive division a place at the in-person championship.”
Masters and Teenage Athletes
In 2024, masters and teenage athletes will begin their season as they have in the past — with the online Open.
Qualifying masters athletes (ages 35-65+) will then move through the online Quarterfinals and Semifinals before advancing to the Masters CrossFit Games by Legends in Birmingham, Alabama, from Aug. 29-Sept. 1, 2024.
This year, the Legends Championship enters its seventh year supporting and showcasing top masters athletes from around the world. Since 2020, more than 50 CrossFit Games masters athletes have competed at the event each year and more than 420 will compete in 2024.
Teenage athletes (ages 14-17) will follow the same path through the Open, Quarterfinal, and Semifinal stages before competing in the Teenage CrossFit Games by Pit Teen Throwdown from Aug. 30- Sept. 1, 2024, in Kalamazoo and Three Rivers, Michigan.
The Pit Teen Throwdown offers a highly competitive arena for world-class athletes to test their skill, strength, and stamina against their peers. Big names in the sport have competed in the Throwdown in the past such as 2023 Rookie of the Year Olivia Kerstetter and 2022’s second-Fittest Woman on Earth Mal O’Brien.
Masters and teenage athletes are a significant part of the CrossFit Games season. The first masters competition was held at the Games in 2010, and this cohort of competitors continues to thrive in the sport, making up over half of Open participants last year. Teenagers were brought into the fold in 2015. Now in 2023, approximately 40% of this year’s Games athletes can say they started CrossFit in their teen years. Together, CrossFit’s age-group divisions represent the diversity of CrossFit and showcase the power of fitness at any age. We look forward to continuing to see them compete through CrossFit’s Open, Quarterfinal, and Semifinal phases as we look ahead to the in-person finals where they will take center stage.
Adaptive Athletes
The entirety of the adaptive athlete competition will be run by WheelWOD, an organization that will host its 11th annual competition this year. In collaboration with CrossFit, WheelWOD will provide a fair, inclusive, and well-rounded competition to test and showcase CrossFit’s adaptive athlete community.
Most recently, the CrossFit Games season included eight competitive divisions for adaptive athletes during the Open, and three divisions moved on to the in–person final. Now, in partnership with WheelWOD, the race for the championship will include 15 divisions, and athletes from all 15 will have a chance to advance to the in-person final.
The 2024 Adaptive CrossFit Games by WheelWOD will take place Sept. 19-22, 2024, in San Antonio, Texas.