Since Greg Glassman announced Regionals and the Invitational were being eliminated as of the 2019 competitive season, we learned that in their places, HQ will run a series of events that will help determine who will get an invitation to the Games. The first ever CrossFit sanctioned event announced was the Dubai CrossFit Championship, previously known as the Dubai Fitness Championship. We know now the second CF sanctioned event on board: the Granite Games, according to a press release from CrossFit.
The official CrossFit competition will span four days and will be held in June of 2019. The announcement certainly keeps in line with Glassman’s earlier explanation of wanting the sport to get back to its roots of community, since the Granite Games traditionally gives back to local communities and really encourages a love of fitness.
As for the other events, the only additional information we have at this time comes from an interview Glassman did with the Girls Gone WOD Podcast, shared by Morning Chalk Up. In it, Glassman revealed he’s spoken with Annie Thorisdottir about something happening in Iceland.
Glassman also spoke more about how the many athletes competing are going to be narrowed down, to make the competition more manageable and undoubtedly more nail-biting. Considering they have athletes in 162 countries competing — each country naming the fittest male, female, and team — the plan is to “cull the herd into a very watchable and exciting number of people. What could happen is early in the week put 200 [athletes] through a task that leaves ten, then watching ten for two days,” he said.
Similarly, the 160+ teams will be cropped from the sanctioned events.
Main image: Granite Games/Instagram
