50 Fun Facts About CrossFit

Who founded CrossFit, incorporating the company in 2000 with Lauren Jenai?

Glassman, a former gymnast, is said to have invented his first CrossFit-style workout at 16 by adding weights to gymnastics.

In which California city was the original CrossFit gym located?

Santa Cruz: Glassman's gym there was the original CrossFit location, and posting its daily workouts online turned a local operation into a worldwide method.

What is a CrossFit-affiliated gym commonly called?

A box: affiliates take the name from the bare warehouse spaces early gyms used. The first affiliate, CrossFit North, opened in Seattle in 2002.

What does WOD stand for?

CrossFit has posted a free daily WOD for the public since 2001.

The benchmark WOD Fran combines pull-ups with which movement, in rounds of 21, 15 and 9 reps?

A thruster is a front squat flowing straight into a push press.

Benchmark workouts such as Fran, Grace and Helen belong to which named group?

The Girls: Fran, Grace and Helen belong to the benchmark workouts CrossFit began giving women's names in 2003. Murph, by contrast, is a Hero workout named for a fallen Navy SEAL.

When a WOD is done exactly as written, without scaling, what is it called?

Rx'd, from the prescription symbol Rx, means the workout was done as prescribed. Reducing reps or weights or swapping movements to fit the athlete is called scaling.

Which momentum-based pull-up technique is common in CrossFit and controversial outside it?

Kipping uses a hip-driven swing to add momentum to each pull-up, letting athletes string together far more reps; critics outside CrossFit call it cheating and say it stresses the shoulders.

The three CrossFit modalities are gymnastics, barbell lifting and what?

Metabolic conditioning, or 'metcon', covers running, rowing, cycling and double-unders; CrossFit's Level 1 guide lists it beside gymnastics and weightlifting as the three modalities.

Helen is three rounds of a 400 m run, 12 pull-ups and 21 swings of what?

A kettlebell: Helen is three rounds of a 400-metre run, 21 kettlebell swings at 24 kg (53 lb) for men and 12 pull-ups, for time.

The benchmark Karen is 150 reps of which movement, for time?

Wall-ball shots: Karen is 150 wall-ball shots for time, throwing a 20 lb ball (14 lb for women) to a 10-foot target from a full squat.

How many affiliated gyms did CrossFit have in 2005?

13: CrossFit had just 13 affiliated gyms in 2005, three years after the first affiliate opened in Seattle; the number grew into the thousands within a decade.

To whom did CrossFit's founder sell the company in 2020 after his George Floyd comments?

Eric Roza, a former Datalogix CEO, bought CrossFit in July 2020 after Glassman's tweet about George Floyd triggered an exodus of affiliates and sponsors.

Which dangerous muscle-breakdown condition has the press long linked to CrossFit's intensity?

Rhabdomyolysis: damaged muscle fibres release myoglobin and other proteins that can overwhelm the kidneys, and several highly publicised cases followed intense CrossFit workouts.

Which gymnastics movement pairs with deadlifts in the benchmark Diane?

Handstand push-ups: Diane is 21-15-9 reps of deadlifts at 225 lb (155 lb for women) and handstand push-ups, for time.

The Hero WOD Murph honours a Navy SEAL killed in 2005 in which country?

Afghanistan: Lt. Michael Murphy was killed in Kunar Province on 28 June 2005 during Operation Red Wings and posthumously received the Medal of Honor.

Murph is a mile run, 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, how many air squats and another mile?

300 air squats: Murph is a mile run, 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 squats and a second mile, ideally in a 20 lb weight vest. Murphy called his version 'Body Armor'.

Fight Gone Bad was built in 2004 to mimic a three-round bout for which UFC fighter?

BJ Penn: Glassman designed the five-station workout for Penn, who said afterwards it felt like 'a fight gone bad', giving it its name.

What does AMRAP stand for in CrossFit programming?

As many rounds as possible: an AMRAP sets a time cap, such as Cindy's 20 minutes, and scores the athlete on completed rounds and reps.

In what year were the first CrossFit Games held?

2007: the first CrossFit Games were held that July on a family ranch in California, and for the first two years anyone who turned up could compete.

The first CrossFit Games took place at a ranch in which California town?

Aromas: the first Games in 2007 were held on a family ranch there, and the finals returned to the ranch in 2020, when the pandemic ruled out spectators.

What title does the CrossFit Games champion receive?

Fittest on Earth: the Games crown their individual champions with the title, on the argument that a test spanning lifting, gymnastics and endurance measures fitness better than any single sport.

How much prize money did the winners of the inaugural 2007 Games receive?

$500: the inaugural 2007 Games paid $500 to each winner. By 2011 a title sponsorship had pushed first prize to $250,000, and it reached $300,000 by 2019.

Which sportswear brand sponsored the CrossFit Games from 2011 to 2020?

Reebok became title sponsor in 2011 with a ten-year deal that ended after 2020; the partnership put the Reebok name on the Games and its Nano shoe on athletes' feet.

From 2010 to 2016 the Games were held at the Home Depot Center in which California city?

Carson: the Home Depot Center, later the StubHub Center, hosted the Games from 2010 to 2016, before the event moved to the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, Wisconsin, in 2017.

Which city hosted the 2024 CrossFit Games?

Fort Worth, Texas hosted the 2024 Games at Dickies Arena; the event was overshadowed by a competitor's death during the opening swim in Marine Creek Lake.

The Open, the Games' first qualifying stage, was introduced in which year?

2011: the first Open drew about 26,000 athletes competing online in weekly workouts, replacing the previous year's sectionals as the first qualifying stage.

How many athletes signed up for the Open at its 2018 peak?

415,000 athletes registered for the 2018 Open, its all-time peak; that year's Open ran one new workout a week for five weeks.

Who created and directed the CrossFit Games until being dismissed in 2022?

He returned in 2023 as leader of the sport team.

Which man was the first to win the Games four times, taking the title from 2011 to 2014?

Rich Froning won four straight individual titles from 2011 to 2014, then switched to the team event and led CrossFit Mayhem to six team titles between 2015 and 2022.

Froning's gym, CrossFit Mayhem, is in which Tennessee town?

He worked for the Cookeville Fire Department before a professor introduced him to CrossFit in 2009.

How many individual Games titles did Mat Fraser win?

Five: Mat Fraser won every Games from 2016 to 2020 after finishing runner-up in 2014 and 2015, then retired in early 2021.

Tia-Clair Toomey, the most decorated Games athlete, competes for which country?

Australia: Tia-Clair Toomey, from Queensland, was runner-up in 2015 and 2016 before winning her first title in 2017.

Toomey also competed at the 2016 Rio Olympics in which sport?

Olympic weightlifting: Toomey lifted in the 58 kg class at Rio 2016, finishing 14th, and won Commonwealth Games gold in the same class in 2018. She later tried out as a bobsleigh brakewoman.

Which Icelander was the first woman to win the Games twice, in 2011 and 2012?

Anníe Mist Þórisdóttir won in 2011 and 2012, the first woman to take two titles; she had trained as a gymnast, ballet dancer and pole vaulter before finding CrossFit in 2009.

Which Icelandic athlete, coached by Ben Bergeron, won back-to-back titles in 2015 and 2016?

Katrín Davíðsdóttir won in 2015 and 2016 under coach Ben Bergeron; she had missed qualifying in 2014 and has called that failure the turning point of her career.

English firefighter Samantha Briggs, nicknamed 'The Engine', won the Games in which year?

2013: Briggs won that year's Games, where she finished the half-marathon row on a Concept2 in just under an hour and a half.

Which Hungarian won the women's title in 2023?

Laura Horváth won the 2023 title in Madison; on her 2018 debut she had been Rookie of the Year and runner-up to Tia-Clair Toomey.

Which Games champion wrote the 2022 book HWPO, short for Hard Work Pays Off?

Mat Fraser: HWPO was his motto through five straight titles, and his 2022 book of that name lays out his training and mindset.

What name did 2008 champion Jason Khalipa's gym company take after NorCal CrossFit?

NCFit: Khalipa's chain began as CrossFit Santa Clara, became NorCal CrossFit, and later rebranded as NCFit when it dropped the CrossFit name.

The kettlebell descends from the Russian girya, traditionally weighed in which unit of about 16.4 kg?

Pood: one pood is about 16.4 kg, and kettlebells are commonly sold in 1, 1.5 and 2 pood sizes. The girya began as an 18th-century market counterweight for weighing crops.

The burpee is named after Royal H. Burpee, who invented it in 1939 as part of what?

His PhD thesis: physiologist Royal H. Burpee devised the movement in 1939 as a quick fitness test for his doctoral thesis at Columbia. His four-count version had no push-up or jump.

After the 2020 sale, CrossFit leased a new headquarters in which Colorado city?

Boulder: new owner Eric Roza, a Boulder resident, moved the company's headquarters there in 2020, and CrossFit, Inc. became CrossFit, LLC at the end of that year.

Who took over as CrossFit CEO in August 2022 after Eric Roza stepped down?

Don Faul, a former Facebook, Pinterest and Athos executive, became CrossFit CEO in August 2022, with Eric Roza moving to executive chairman.

The benchmark Grace is 30 reps of which barbell lift, for time?

Clean and jerk: Grace is 30 clean and jerks at 135 lb for men and 95 lb for women, for time; its sister workout Isabel is 30 snatches at the same weights.

Which investment firm partnered with Eric Roza to buy CrossFit from Greg Glassman in 2020?

Berkshire Partners, a Boston private-equity firm, backed Roza's purchase. Roza, a former CEO of Datalogix, became CrossFit's CEO himself once the sale closed in July 2020.

Which cartoon clown on dialysis drew criticism of CrossFit's attitude to rhabdomyolysis?

Uncle Rhabdo, a clown hooked to a dialysis machine with his kidneys and intestines on the floor, appeared in CrossFit materials; critics called the company's attitude to rhabdomyolysis 'cavalier'.

Which brand, banned from athletes' feet at the 2015 Games, answered with 'Don't ban our shoe, beat our shoe'?

The exclusivity came from CrossFit's Reebok partnership, which also barred Nike from labelling Metcon shoes as for CrossFit.

Which brand was title sponsor of the CrossFit Games from 2021 to 2023?

Nobull, a Boston footwear brand founded by former Reebok employees, was title sponsor from 2021 to 2023, following Reebok's run from 2011 to 2020.

Which Serbian athlete drowned during the first event of the 2024 Games in Fort Worth?

Lazar Đukić, 28, failed to surface near the end of the 800 m swim in Marine Creek Lake; several athletes, including 2023 champion Jeffrey Adler, withdrew from the rest of the Games.