There’s still a LOT going on in the Crossfit world these days. I’m a bit behind on some of this stuff. (I would make an excellent journalist, obviously). However, I wanted to provide some of my own thoughts about the most recent events.
So, what exactly happened?
Things have been a little wild, and what I really want to talk about is further down in this post. Rather than recap every single thing, I’m going to direct you to two important links that will provide you with all of the context you need:
- This podcast by Andy Stumpf. He’s a veteran and former employee of Crossfit HQ with some eye-opening information about the company’s (terrible) corporate culture.
- This New York Times article that was published last weekend. Hopefully, you are able to get past a paywall. If you’re not able to read it, the article backs up a lot of what Stumpf spoke about in his podcast. The article accuses Greg Glassman of making shrewd comments towards female employees and trying to sneak photos of their breasts or look down their shirts. The employees didn’t have anyone to report sexual harassment claims to. Furthermore, based on the few quotes defending Glassman in the article, it appears that a lot of his employees just enabled his actions. The article also mentions a media team member who asked a well-known female athlete inappropriate questions about her sex life during a 2018 interview.
After both of these pieces came out, I felt even more justified in my stance on removing myself personally from Crossfit as much as I could. Of course, I’m the worst Crossfitter on the planet and no one knows who I am. But athletes like Noah Ohslen, Chandler Smith, Katrin Davidsdottir, Amanda Barnhart, and Brooke Wells announced they were dropping out of the games. Brent Fikowski and Samantha Briggs made their announcements a few days later. I’m pretty sure even more affiliates made decisions to un-affiliate throughout this mess, even if they didn’t publicly announce it.
Then, last Wednesday morning, I took a quick break from emails at work and checked Instagram. This was the very first post that popped up on my feed:
I literally gasped out loud after I read just the first sentence. I had expected Glassman would sell the company at some point, but I didn’t think it would happen so soon.
What does this mean for the future of Crossfit?
Honestly, I’m not sure. I don’t know much about Eric Roza, but from what I’ve read, he seems like a savvy business person. He’s been in charge of successful billion-dollar tech companies with thousands of employees. Being a 7-year owner of one of the most recognized Crossfit affiliates in the country, Crossfit Sanitas, he obviously knows the industry. He appears to truly have a passion for making people fitter and healthier. He also seems to care about giving back to others.
Last week, he and Dave Castro had an introductory Zoom call with Crossfit affiliates. I could tell how enthusiastic and excited Roza is about his new venture. Personally, I feel that this can only be a good thing. Having an owner of Crossfit who walks the walk and talks the talk, from both a business/professional standpoint and a physical one, will be a welcome change after the long-standing culture of toxicity at HQ.
Is Greg Glassman really gone?
People on Reddit have been pointing out that since we don’t know (and most likely never will know) the details of the sale, it’s still possible that Greg Glassman could be a shareholder in the company. I suppose that’s true, though I’m no expert in how the sales of multi-million dollar businesses work. If that’s true and it does become public knowledge that Greg is still involved, I’m not sure that I would feel comfortable associating myself with Crossfit again. But I guess time will tell.
I’ve seen other comments on social media wondering why Roza didn’t fully address issues of race and diversity in his introductory Zoom call. I think we have to cut the guy a tiny bit of slack. The sale hasn’t even been fully completed yet, and he’s coming into an extremely messy scenario. He’ll have a lot to unpack. I saw on Castro’s Instagram last night that a scholarship program is in the works; this could be a great first step towards bringing Crossfit into more underserved communities.
What about the gyms that unaffiliated?
People have also accused the gyms that announced they were un-affiliating for acting too brashly, now that things may be moving in a better direction. Honestly, I understand those decisions. They did what they felt was best given the information they had at the time. How could they have known that just a few short weeks later, a new owner and CEO would be an actual reality?
Besides, Glassman selling the company likely wouldn’t have happened if those affiliates hadn’t announced that they were leaving (or the athletes didn’t drop out of the games and sponsorships didn’t get pulled, for that matter). I can’t tell you what will happen to those affiliates now. I obviously can’t make their decisions for the future for all of them. I just hope that the members of those gyms continue to stand by them whether they decide to join Crossfit again or not. I know I would if my gym were to announce that they will renew their affiliation after all.
I can only imagine that there will be a lot more information coming out over the next few weeks, so I’ll do my best to stay on top of what happens next. I feel good about what I’ve seen so far, but I don’t want to get caught up in the excitement just yet. I’m certainly willing to give it a chance, and I’ll be watching with cautious optimism to see what happens in the future.
