Yesterday, CrossFit began penalizing athletes following a video review of Workout 1 of the 2024 CrossFit Quarterfinals. By mid-morning Thursday, 265 penalties had been handed down, and that number had risen to 348 this morning. Some of these penalties were given to athletes whose judges were members of the Association of Fitness Judges (AFJ).
of AFJ was formed At the end of last year, I said, “The purpose is [promote] Professional development and improvement of referees (“umpires”) in functional fitness sports. This includes the safety of referees and athletes, the fairness and consistency of competition standards, and by increasing transparency between athletes, coaches and competitions. It includes organizers and judges, all individuals and organizations involved in the sport of functional fitness. ”
AFJ judges have been invited to several training camps in Europe, including HWPO training, Mayhem, and JST training. However, notable athletes from these camps, including Brooke Wells (HWPO), Paige Powers (Mayhem), and Ella Wilkinson (JST), all received significant penalties in Workout 1 after video review.
Last night, AFJ released a statement regarding the penalty imposed on the player, which was reviewed by AFJ members.
Via @associationoffitnessjudges Instagram account:
A lot has happened in the competitive CrossFit field over the past 24 hours.
AFJ was founded to professionalize and legitimize the sport we all love. We are a group of judges from around the world with years of experience judging at the highest levels of the sport, including semi-finals, regionals, sanctions, games and rogues.
In this quarterfinal, AFJ was introduced to assist in the training of many training camps and individual athletes. We had their trust, their belief, their confidence. The CrossFit Video Review team was looking for very strict standards, but we weren’t able to create them every time. Since the first wave of penalties passed, we have been in contact with the various affected athletes and training camps to provide advice and consultation on how to proceed.
Certain movement standards for live, in-person events can be implemented if the judging team notices that something subtle has been overlooked (i.e. head down, soft knee on the non-moving leg, etc.) It’s easy to deal with and quickly corrected for the athlete to adjust and continue. work. In online competitions, it’s very difficult for these elite-level athletes to keep track of these kinds of nuances in real time, and as we’ve seen, the most experienced group of judges, the Coaches, and even multiple investment-savvy bystanders, can miss it. Sports. But behind the computer’s ability to slow down and check over and over again, it can catch all of these criteria, literally figure them out, and then penalize athletes for consistent errors on any of these nuances. You can do that easily.
We have the utmost confidence in the judges who were selected last week to represent AFJ. Without the presence of a judge with these professional qualifications, there is no doubt that even more penalties would have been imposed. Having said that, we pride ourselves on improving this aspect of the sport and ultimately facilitating the virtual stage of competition for our athletes, so for any penalties handed down to date. I still feel responsible. Judgment, as the name suggests, is a highly subjective role, and mistakes can occur at all levels.
As a sport, we need to improve in all aspects to further our professionalism.
We intend to be part of that change. Thank you to everyone who continues to support what AFJ does and what we represent. We look forward to seeing you at the competition venue!
The video review process is ongoing and individual leaderboards are expected to be finalized by Monday, April 29th at the latest, and age group leaderboards are expected to be finalized by Wednesday, May 1st.
