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2023 CrossFit Games Rulebook Detailed: What Has Changed?

A first look at what athletes can expect for the upcoming CrossFit season.

The 2023 CrossFit Games rulebook has been unveiled by the Sport’s organisation. There are a few changes regarding registration, Semifinals athletes can compete in, and multi-divisional athletes.

As of yet, it is still unclear how the strength-of-field worldwide ranking system is designed. HQ promised to release the details before Open beings which is February 16th.

BOXROX has also previously named 15 changes to next year’s season structure that you can read it here.

2023 CrossFit Games Rulebook

2023 CrossFit Open

  • Registration for the 2023 CrossFit Open begins tomorrow (17th November 2022).
  • Athletes must provide information to establish their competitive region for the Open which will be assigned for the remainder of the season.
  • Athletes from the United States and Canada will be allocated one of the two Semifinals in North America based on residency – either where your Box is or, for unaffiliated members, home address
  • North American athletes living outside of North America will be placed in the North America East region.
  • Athletes do not need to be living in the country in which they claim citizenship, so long as the athlete is a citizen of said country.
  • Athletes with dual or multiple citizenships may choose which country to represent
2023 crossfit games rulebookSource: Courtesy of CrossFit Inc
  • If an athlete resides outside their country of citizenship AND believes they may advance to the in-person Semifinal stage, they may petition for an exemption to be placed in a different competition region.
  • If such exemption is granted, the athlete’s competitive region and country flag on the leaderboard will be changed for the duration of the season to the country they are placed into.

This could well mean that Roman Khrennikov, a Russian athlete who struggled multiple times to compete at the Games but finally got his Visa last year, could be competing in the United States under the stars and stripes banner.

  • Exemptions must be filed with the CrossFit Games team by February 1st.

Team Registration

In previous years, athletes were required to live a maximum of 100-mile from their Box to be able to compete in a team from that affiliated gym. That has been scratched.

  • Only athletes who train at a licensed CrossFit affiliate are eligible to compete in a team from that Box.
  • Athletes must be registered and listed on the team roster prior to the close of the first Open test.
  • Each Open test must be performed in the same physical location as the team’s affiliate.
  • Team members may not switch between teams, even if they are from the same affiliate.

Open Prize Purse

CrossFit will pay the top scorer of each week’s Open test and, at the end of the competition, the top 5 athletes placed worldwide at the leaderboard.

  • US$ 2,023 cash will be awarded each week for the top score by an individual man and individual woman worldwide.

At the conclusion of the Open, cash prizes will be awarded accordingly for both men and women worldwide:

  1. U$ 15,000
  2. U$10,000
  3. U$7,5000
  4. U$6,000
  5. U$5,000

Also, the drug testing program for the 2023 season has also been revealed. You can check it out here.

2023 CrossFit Semifinals

CrossFit Inc. will fully operate Semifinals in North America (East and West) and Europe. The remaining 4 Semifinals will be run by sanctioned and licensed CrossFit entities.

  • Athletes who qualify for a Semifinal as an individual and as a team must choose, prior to the Semifinals, which division they will participate in.

For example, an athlete who is registered to be eligible to compete at a Box’s team qualifies for both teams and as an individual, must choose which path to continue for the Semifinal. Any given athlete is not allowed to compete in a team AND as an individual at a Semifinal event.

However, if the athlete chose to compete as an individual at the Semifinal instead of the team he or she is registered in, said athlete may still compete in the team if that team qualifies to the CrossFit Games.

A hypothetical example can be made of last year’s CrossFit season. Katrin Davidsdottir was registered as part of Annie Thorisdottir’s team for the 2022 CrossFit season. Davidsdottir competed as an individual at the Semifinal while Thorisdottir competed in a team with Tola Morakinyo, Khan Porter and Lauren Fisher. If Fisher was pulled out of the team due to an injury days before the CrossFit Games, Katrin Davidsdottir would be eligible to fill in as she is registered for the team, even though she did not compete with the team during Semifinals.

  • Athletes who qualify for a Semifinal as an individual and in the age-group division are allowed to compete in both divisions.
  • Athletes who qualify for a Semifinal in the age group division and team division are allowed to compete in both divisions.

Advancement from Semifinals to the CrossFit Games

As previously mentioned, CrossFit will use a worldwide ranking system to evaluate how many qualifying spots each region will receive. Any given region will have a minimum, but eligible athletes might differ from men’s and women’s divisions even if they are from the same region.

CrossFit is yet to explain how this worldwide ranking system will work, however it does seem problematic as it will take into consideration the past two years of an athlete’s placement at the Open, Quarterfinals, Semifinals and CrossFit Games.

  • Should an athlete decline their invitation to the Games, CrossFit will backfill that position to the next eligible athlete from their respective Semifinal competition.
  • “In the event of a backfill or violation of CrossFit’s Drug Policy, no more than three athletes outside of qualifying position may be eligible for a backfill position.”

You can read the full 2023 CrossFit Games rulebook here.

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