Also, is the Golden Age of CrossFit over? I'm sure injury rate is an issue, but I don't see as many new big name stars as I did several years ago. I mostly see the same big name stars that I saw several years ago.
What do you mean by "injury rate is an issue"?
Tia-Claire Toomey-Orr and Laura Horváth have remained at the top of the Crossfit Games standings for a few years. Toomey-Orr misssed the 2023 Crossfit Games because she was pregnant during the preparation period for the Games (she had delivered by the time the games were held), but you have to be a real raging MCP to consider a pregnancy an "injury" (or a really heterophobic lesbian who calls pregnancy "sperm poisoning"). She had a dominant performance at North America East regional this year and it looks like it is going to be hard for Horváth to repeat as open women's division Games champion: she won the European semifinal and is probably in a good position for 2nd place. She's 30 and how much longer she can stay ahead of the younger competitors remains an open question.
There have always been retirements from the "open" women's division due to age. The age categories begin at 35. Some women compete there, occasionally one competes in the "open division" over the age of 34 (like Andreia Pinhero this year at age 42; she was 3rd in the South America final); some continue to do Crossfit but do not compete for places at the Crossfit games.
Age catches up with some, as it seems to have for Katrin Daviðsdóttir, who has been falling in the standings recently, not having been able to improve as others have (after 1st in 2015–16, between 2nd and 5th, 2017–2020; 10th in 2021, did not qualify out of her seimifinal in 2022, 7th in 2023). She was 14,026th in the Crossfit Open this year at age 31 and did not qualify to the semifinals. Meanwhile, Annie Þorisdóttir, 11th at the Games in 2023 at age 33, finished 35,104th in the semis and also did not advance to the quarterfinals.
Mallory O'Brien succumbed to the pressure of being hailed as the best prospect to beat Toomey-Orr and dropped out of the Crossfit Games qualifying rounds last year. Emma Lawson, 6th in 2022 at age 17 and 2nd last year, came in 3rd in her regional behind Toomey-Orr and Alexis Raptis (age 25), and can make a run at the podium.
It's pretty natural in all sports for "big name stars" to age out. There's a good deal of continuity below the podium spots; Emma McQuaid, age 34, will be in her 6th consecutive Crossfit Games this year, and Emily Rolfe, also age 34, will be in her fifth Games in the last 6 years, as will Karin Freyová (age 29). Danielle Brandon is in her 6th Games at age 27. There are others.
Considering that over 100,000 women enter the Crossfit Open, the first qualifying stage, the 40 that make it to the Games are the top 0.04% or they're at the 99.96 percentile. I think they all have to be considered "stars." If you're only thinking of the ones on the podim (the top 0.003% or the 99.997 percsentile), you're not paying attention.
What do you mean by "injury rate is an issue"?
I don't mean the professionals. I said I see the same names at the top. I meant Joe Everyman and Jane Sassafras who aren't on tv. It is a training style that favors consistency and durability so doing it on the weekends or a few times a week would be more injurious, no? Especially for regular Joe's without a dedicated PT. It's hard, competitive lifting after all.
you're not paying attention.
No I'm not, that's why I asked. I wasn't being facetious! I named Stacie Tovar and Miranda Oldroyd for Pete's sake. That's like naming Clark Gable as my favorite actor.
I don't think they all have to be considered stars. Everyone in the NBA isn't a star. They'd all be stars at the local YMCA, but that's not who they're being evaluated against.
Stacie Tovar's last Crossfit Games in the women's open division was in 2017 when she finished 27th. Miranda Oldroyd never made it to the games and dropped out of Crossfit a few years ago to pursue some other fitness activity (exactly what I don't remember). To catch you up since then …
Katrin Tanja Daviðsdóttir from Iceland had won the Games in 2015 and 2016; Tia-Clair Toomey of Australia was 2nd both years. Toomey won in 2017 and has won every year since until 2023, when she had her pregnancy. Laura Horváth of Hungary first competed in the Games in 2018, finishing 2nd. She had some rough years immediately after, finishing 14th in 2019 and 24th in 2020, when only the top 5 from an on-line competition competed against each other in person. Since then she has finished 2nd in 2021, 3rd in 2022, and 1st in 2023 when Toomey was absent. Annie Þorisdóttir was 3rd in 2017. She had already won in 2011 and 2012 and was one of the "stars" of the early 2nd decade of the 21st century; I've described her recent career (and since my earlier post have learned that she is pregnant with her 2nd child; she's probably done competing for Crossfit Games qualification).
Tovar came in 2nd in 2023 in the women's 35–39 division. She competed in the semifinals this year on a team that did not qualify to the games.
Participation in the on-line Crossfit Open seems to have peaked a few years ago and then declined slightly but there were around 135,000 women registered this year, not all of whom submitted any scores at all (but I think around 100,000 submitted scores for all 3 events). I have no idea what the ratio of fee-paying members at "boxes" to Open registrants is, and I'm not sure that even the Crossfit organization does; they presumably know the number of dues-paying boxes but not the number of fee-paying Crossfitters at each one. Perhaps worldwide participation in any form has plateaued, but the early growth rates could not have been maintained regularly.
Early in the development of Crossfit there were lots of snarky predictions that anyone who did it would develop severe chronic orthopedic problems later in life, with lots of posters on social media claiming to be chiropractors or orthopedists (or to know one, including their own) getting rich from Crossfit or expecting to. I don't follow it closely enough to know if there has been a long-term study of Crossfitters' health vs. long-term participants or practitioners in other forms of exercise. I would not be surprised to learn that no one has done a study to either confirm or invalidate the predictions. Such a study would have had to be initiated 10 or more years ago to have any long-term data by now. Perhaps there have been some studies of short-term comparative injury rates.
I don't follow it closely enough to know
Bullshit. I'm 70% sure you're Greg Glassman.
I think my usage of "Golden Age" is being taken as meaning today is the "Shit Age". That's not it. The Golden Age of bodybuilding was years ago, but bodybuilding is still around and arguably stronger than ever. The Golden Age of Rock N Roll doesn't coincide with its largest popularity, and the heart of Rock N Roll is still beating. Edit The Golden Age of comics was decades ago, but comic book characters are more popular today than ever before.
Women who weren't on TV and cereal boxes like Kolson Lamb, for example, seem fewer in number. The amateur/journeyman class. On the other hand, K. Davidsdottir was around with Annie Sakamoto. She's undeniably built for this.
I think attrition selects for the most suited. I don't think walking into a Box dooms you to osteoporosis or torn ligaments. It's just that CrossFit got a lot of people off their ass and out of the office for the first time in their adult lives. They might've torn an ACL in high school soccer, but they never played. They could have torn their meniscus playing volleyball, but never joined a team.
Emma Lawson