Invictus Blog

2012 CrossFit Games Weekend Round-Up – Part One of Unknown
Written by C.J. Martin

It’s Sunday night, I have about 45 minutes, and frankly, I am smoked! It was an amazing weekend from start to finish, but the days were long and the sun was HOT! Nonetheless, there are a couple of things that have to be said right away, so I am calling this part one of an undefined number of posts recapping the weekend.

Today’s post will be directed at all of those outside of the Invictus family who made this all possible, tomorrow I will dig into the Invictus family – because I have way too much to say about them than time allows now.

First, I want to express my gratitude to everyone at CrossFit and Reebok for organizing an incredible event. In 2007, I thought the CrossFit Games were phenomenal. In 2008 I was even more impressed. The trend has continued every year, but this year the quality of the event seemed to jump exponentially.

The guys from Reebok (Don, Chad, Chris, and probably countless others) have been phenomenal advocates for the athletes, and this year’s athlete services were exceptional. From the overflowing bags of gear they received when they checked in to the air conditioned lounges, quality food, warm-up areas, etc…, our athletes felt appreciated and well cared for.

To the CrossFit staff, thank you for a well-organized competition with some phenomenal events. The briefings for each event were clear (thank you Chuck and Adrian!), we stayed on schedule all weekend, and the athletes knew exactly what was expected of them. The events were balanced and as challenging as ever.

I also want to express gratitude specifically for the major improvements to the Team competition. Creating a competition in which all six team members could participate in at least 8 events acknowledged that these athletes worked their asses off all year long and deserved to get out there and showcase everything they worked so hard to achieve. The scoring system was also greatly improved. In past competitions, the contribution of female athletes was often minimized when it came to max effort events. For example, in the regional qualifiers’ snatch ladder, even if your women averaged 145 lbs each on their snatch (which is very high) their total contribution would have been less than 40% of the top teams’ total lbs lifted. The Games scoring recognized the problem and gave power back to the females to make an even contribution to their team’s score – by allocating 50 points to the female totals and 50 points to the male totals. Thank you for making them equal members of the team!

Finally, a HUGE THANK YOU to all of the judges and volunteers who sacrificed their weekends (and more) to take care of our athletes and spectators, and generally help make this entire event run smoothly. The generosity and commitment of the CrossFit community never ceases to amaze me. Without these volunteers, the CrossFit Games could have never grown to where it is today, and it cannot continue to grow without these amazing individuals.

That’s going to have to be a wrap for me tonight, but many, many more “thanks” to come over the next day or more.
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If anyone has photos of any of the Invictus athletes or crowd from Games, I would LOVE to get copies (electronic, preferably) from you. We can never have too many photos of our athletes and Sea of Green in action. Thank you!