The first week of the 2024 CrossFit Open featured several dumbbell snatches and lateral burpees on dumbbells. The athletes were tasked with completing each movement a total of 90 times within a time limit of 15 minutes. The rep scheme is a twist on the classic 21-15-9, but at each rep level he did two sets of each movement instead of one.
This year saw a departure from the standard alternating dumbbell snatch, which required athletes to complete all snatches with the same arm at a given rep level, perform a burpee, and switch arms on the next set. We’ve seen many burpee variations at The Open over the years, but this was the first time we’d attempted a lateral burpee with dumbbells.
Open Workout 24.1 was very accessible, with no highly skilled movements, and most athletes were able to perform the Rx version. This combination of moderately weighted dumbbells and burpees is a prime test of muscular stamina and cardiovascular endurance. With no real blockers, it all came down to how fast you could repeat the snatch and how much rest you needed to stay upright.
Participation status by country
Below we take a look at the top 10 countries in the Open based on participation. All countries in the top 10 saw an increase in participation from 2023, but their relative rankings changed slightly.
Britain regained second place after losing to France in 2023. Brazil also jumped from 6th place in 2023 to 4th place in 2024.
South Korea further improved its ranking, going from 9th place in 2023 to 7th place in 2024 and 13th place in 2022. The absolute number of participants increased by 39% from 2023.
Compare the rankings of the top 10 countries for each week of the Open. 24.1 shows the percentage of athletes who completed her Rx’d version of the workout within the time limit, the percentage of athletes who did not, and the percentage of athletes who performed the scale or basic version.
Based on the percentage of people who completed the Rx’d version of 24.1, the top country was South Korea, with 70% completing within the time limit. Last year, they also took the top spot for the highest percentage of athletes achieving 23.1 as Rx’d. Therefore, South Korea is not only one of the open and fastest growing countries, but also one of the most competitive of all time.
South Korea is followed by Spain with 67% and Australia with 66% of their athletes completing the Rx’d version of the workout.
Workout analysis by department
A higher proportion of men were willing to try this training as Rx’d, with 87% of athletes aged 18-34 choosing to go that route. On the women’s side, 73% chose her Rx’d version, compared to 74% in the all-masters division and 71% in the all-teens division.
The graph below, which shows the distribution of scores by movement and rep range, shows that there were no major obstacles to this workout. Workouts often involve highly skilled movements, particularly difficult weights, or both. These trainings significantly reduce the smoothness of the distribution.
For men who received Rx between the ages of 16 and 54, we see that the time intensity hovers around 10 minutes. For the Rxed woman, you can see that it’s centered around her 12 minute mark.
Less than 1% of athletes completed their workouts in less than 7 minutes.
Below are individual, master, and teenager percentile tables with details for each version of the workout. See a breakdown of how many times and how long it took to reach a certain percentile. For example, for a 14- to 15-year-old Rx girl, a time of 10 minutes and 19 seconds would be in the 75th percentile.
These percentiles are compared to division and workout versions. This is different from the department-wide percentile (compared to all versions).
*Data used in this article is from official CrossFit Open submissions.
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Cover photo: Ruby Wolfe
