Holy cow. People are ticked. As you likely already know, athletes aiming to get to Regionals must prepare video recordings of their Open workouts, in case they need to provide verification they got the scores they claim they did. No big deal, right? Well, it is now. Someone recently came across Brooke Wells’ video submission for 18.4 and noticed something a bit… odd. And then? It spread like wildfire.

The controversy surrounds her handstand push-ups. You’ll recall CrossFit’s standards for handstand push-ups say the athlete must start the rep above the pre-marked target line.  Here’s where people are getting a little irritated: some are convinced based on Wells’ video, it could be deemed she missed the mark on the majority, if not all, of her reps. Here’s her video submission — the HSPUs start around the 5:45 mark.

A few YouTubers took notice and left their thoughts in the comments. People have taken to Reddit to debate her performance. The tension is so thick, you could cut it with a knife.

Then, of course, other people don’t seem to mind so much. It’s Brooke Wells. Of course she can do handstand push-ups — and just about anything else. Of course she belongs at Regionals.

The HSPU standards certainly made for a heated debate, and some athletes felt negatively impacted by it. Just look at Jacob Heppner, who left an emotional Instagram post letting his fans know the standard meant he won’t be qualifying for Regionals.

Now, in all this commotion, where does HQ stand? They actually responded on Reddit, saying:

Following up on this. We took the information shared on the thread and circulated it internally. The video is shot at a poor angle, which makes review difficult. There do appear to be HSPU reps that miss the line.

In terms of the video verification following the Open: This video was submitted as a verification of capacity to complete the score submitted. These spot checks are designed to allow us to verify that athletes are capable of the work they claimed to be.

In rare, egregious cases, score adjustments based on quality of movements or massively miscounted reps can be made. It was determined that this video did not represent one of those cases.

Brooke’s video has been accepted.

A satisfying answer? Not for a lot of people. If they admit it looks like she no-repped quite a bit, why was an exception made for her? Other athletes undoubtedly got called out on missed reps, and their scores suffered for it. What about Jacob Heppner? Conversely, if CF needs only to determine an athlete is “capable of the work they claimed to be,” and Wells obviously is, should it matter that she missed the mark?

A messy situation indeed, but the functional fitness gods have spoken. What are your thoughts?

Main image: Brooke Wells/YouTube