Celia Mann | Social Media Editor
April 3, 2025
The CrossFit Open is the pinnacle of the CrossFit community. It is an annual competition to determine the fittest on Earth, with four stages of competition and multiple workouts to test the strength, endurance, and skills of athletes around the globe.
On Thursday February 27, 2025, the 15th CrossFit open kicked off with an announcement that featured elite athletes performing the newly announced workout that the rest of the CrossFit world would soon complete. Over the course of the next three weeks, workouts would be subsequently released every Thursday at noon to be completed with scores submitted by 5pm on Monday. For each workout, placing on the leaderboard would determine how many points an athlete received, the one with the lowest number of points being declared the winner.
Typically, the final leaderboard is posted the week following the last workout. Following that, up until last year, the top 10% worldwide were eligible to compete in quarterfinals, whereas in 2024 the top 25% of athletes in each division (or minimum of 200) would receive an invite. However, CrossFit HQ decided to switch things up again this year, skipping the phase of quarterfinals entirely.
In its place, the competition would jump straight into semifinals, where a mere 2% (or minimum of 200) in each age division and the top 1% (or minimum of 1,200) of individual men and women would qualify. Instead of being an in-person event, semifinals are through online submission of videos completed in an affiliated gym, with two judges to correct movement standards and set up the equipment. Post semifinals, the top 30 men and women in each division will move onto the final stage of competitions: The CrossFit Games, where the fittest on Earth will be crowned.
The constant changes have grown confusing for many athletes striving to compete at the higher levels. Junior at San Clemente High School Jack Vermillion explained, “It’s a confusing system really. From what I remember last year, it was the top 25% to make the quarterfinals. But this year they took away the quarter finals,” limiting the number of athletes who reach the next stage. Even so, the Open season remains one of the highlights of the year for many athletes and affiliates.
Aside from the competitive aspect, the CrossFit Open season highlights the strength of the CrossFit community around the world. Vermillion describes that “The community in CrossFit is amazing. The open and semis definitely encourage this.” Gyms come together to complete the workouts in heats, and “the people around you encourage you to push through and finish when you’re so close and feel like giving up.”
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