A total of 16 athletes have received a region exemption to compete in a Semifinal in a different continent than the one they were born in. The biggest name on the latest list of athletes is Icelandic Katrin Davidsdottir. She will be eligible to compete out of North America West.
BOXROX previously revealed that 5 athletes received a region exemption from CrossFit HQ to compete in a different Semifinal should they get through. However, that initial list from CrossFit has been updated and now we have a total of 16 names in it.
Athletes Who Received a Region Exemption
According to the rulebook, if an athlete resides outside their country of citizenship and believes they could make it to the Semifinals, they may petition for an exemption to be placed in a different competition region. There are 7 regions in place – West North America, East North America, Europe, South America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania.
We already knew that Roman Khrennikov received a region exemption from CrossFit to compete in North America East. In the updated list, the most notable name added is the 2x Fittest Woman on Earth Katrin Davidsdottir.
Davidsdottir has not explained why she is competing out of North America West at the time of writing. In November 2021 she left her coach Ben Bergeron and CompTrain to go back to Iceland to stay closer to her family and train with her friend Annie Thorisdottir. Last year she failed to go to the CrossFit Games for the first time since 2015 when she first won the title.
Currently, only Davidsdottir and Khrennikov are in the top 100 world ranking system created by CrossFit Inc. Davidsdottir is 17th in the world and Khrennikov is 7th.
Here is the complete list of all athletes who received a region exemption from CrossFit.
Name | Original Competition | New Competition |
Antonio Barrias | Europe | Asia |
Roman Khrennikov | Asia | North America East |
Conor McEleny | Europe | Oceania |
Carlos Albaladejo | North America West | Asia |
Luke Tweddell | Europe | Asia |
Fernando Carrillo | North America East | Europe |
Keith Stillman | North America West | Asia |
Katrin Davidsdottir | Europe | North American West |
Emiliana Guerra | South America | North America East |
Denis Samsonov | Asia | North America East |
Stephanie Ortiz | North America West | Oceania |
Jenna Lenich | North America East | Oceania |
David Wiggin | Europe | Oceania |
Juan Pablo Rodriguez | South America | North America East |
Rainer Perez | South America | North America East |
Vicki Weber | Europe | Oceania |
The deadline to apply for a competition region exemption was February 1st. CrossFit has not revealed if any other athlete’s application is still under review, nor if any athlete had their application revoked.
Image Sources
- Katrin-Davidsdottir: Whoop