The world is witnessing a phenomenon with CrossFit, which provides the opportunity for college students to represent their schools as a club sport. Universities throughout the nation have club teams that engage in CrossFit competition, including Penn State, Delaware, Villanova and North Carolina.
The upcoming Reebok CrossFit Games at Carson, Calif., on July 19-24 will generate plenty of interest worldwide and television exposure on ESPN. The event will showcase some of the more physically fit athletes on the planet who qualified after making it through the first round (called “The Open”) and the Regionals.
The competition has boiled down to 40 men, 40 women, 40 teams, 40 teenagers and 200 masters (40 years old and older) who will compete for the “Fittest on Earth” title in their respective classification.
What makes the CrossFit Games unique is the competitors do not know the challenges ahead of them in the events. They learn of what they must compete in that day when the event starts. That makes it impossible to train for a specific task, which differs from all other sports.
An example: A recent CrossFit Games got underway with a triathlon that included a 750-meter ocean swim, an 8K bicycle race in soft sand and an 11K race in the mountains. The athletes had no idea this triathlon would be their first event. After completing this task, the athletes were allowed only one hour to recuperate before confronting a U.S. Marines obstacle course at Camp Pendleton.
After achieving times that rivaled the fastest of the most fit Marines, the next day they attacked a 300-yard shuttle (again an event unbeknownst to them when the day started), performed five rope climbs of 25 feet and pushed a blocking sled the length of a football field 20 yards at a time.
Some other events from the past included dusty hill sprints, sandbag carries and other various endurance competitions. In the regional competition in May, the events included weight-lifting squat snatches, pull-ups, power cleans, deadlifts, 400-meter run, 1,000-meter bike race, rope climbs, 100-foot handstand walk and at least 50 burpees (a constant repeat of landing flat on a mat and jumping back up).
CrossFit, with its fitness centers around the world, is a novel form of competition and it’s catching fire in terms of participants and viewers. According to the CrossFit Web site, last year 11,000 affiliates existed. The number has increased to more than 13,000 this year. ESPN began televising the CrossFit Games in 2011 on ESPN2. The network has shown the competition on its main channel (ESPN) since 2013.
A popular documentary produced by CrossFit titled “Fittest on Earth” is now available on Netflix. With the sport becoming very visible so soon in its infancy, the future of CrossFit has no boundaries, including a potential venture into college competition if the NCAA plays it smart. Many colleges have already instituted CrossFit principles (a mix of aerobic exercise, calisthenics and Olympic weightlifting) into their training of athletes in various sports.
Many former NCAA athletes are involved in the competition. Ben Smith, the men’s winner of the 2015 CrossFit Games, played a season of college baseball at Lafayette. The top women’s finisher in the West Region heading into the CrossFit Games is Carleen Mathews, the owner and operator of St. Helens (Ore.) CrossFit who completed her collegiate softball career at Concordia University in Portland.
Former Hardin-Simmons football player Roy Gamboa is one of the top challengers in the men’s competition. Emily Bridgers competed in gymnastics at Georgia for one season in the 2005-06 school year before a back injury derailed her career. She strengthened her back through CrossFit training and is now one of the top female contenders annually. Bridgers’ story belies what many believe about the injury risks involved with CrossFit competition.
CrossFit is a grueling, intense, physically demanding activity that requires nonstop training. Although the sport is growing in popularity, it has also received its fair share of criticism as dangerous to an athlete’s career, a fact that will likely prevent it from becoming a sanctioned NCAA sport.
A 2013 study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research was designed to look at the frequency of injury in CrossFit athletes during routine training. Of the 132 people who responded to the survey, 97 (or nearly three-quarters) reported getting hurt during CrossFit training, and most injuries involved the shoulders and spine. These respondents reported a total of 186 injuries; nine of which led to surgeries.
Injury concerns happen in every sport but with how the body is put to the extreme test in CrossFit, the risks could be detrimental with it growing in stature in the NCAA other than it being a club sport. At the very least, some high schools and colleges have incorporated CrossFit training regimens into their programs. For now, prospective athletes coming out of college will be captivated for how CrossFit evolves as a means for competition. Is it a fad or a sport that will be here to stay with a never-declining popularity?
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