Is This the End of CrossFit Inc. as We Know It?
Thoughtless statements from the brand are destroying the CrossFit company but making the community stronger in the process.
This article is a follow-up to my orginal article on Rocket Crossfit disaffiliating from CrossFit Inc. You can find the first article attached below.
Three days after one of the largest CrossFit gyms announced their disaffiliation from the company, others in the community are now speaking out against racism. Top competitors are losing sponsorships after being exposed by other athletes for racist comments. Also, the founder of CrossFit is once again making horrendous comments about current affairs in the country. Now, the CrossFit community is looking to some of its top athletes and sponsors to take action against this perceived culture of racism.
Two of the top CrossFit Games competitors were both exposed on June 5th for using racial slurs. Screenshots were posted to Reddit on Friday showing athlete, Jessica Griffith using the N-word in text messages. The texts were from a group of athletes sponsored by MisFit Athletics, a company that offers CrossFit programming. Griffith sent the message in response to another athlete’s score from their workout, which is the whole purpose of their group.
At first, no one in the group said anything about the racial comment; but then Chandler Smith addressed the group, saying, “I’d like to point out that Jess casually dropped the n word here and no one said anything.” Travis Williams, another Misfit Athletics sponsored athlete, responded to Smith saying, “I’m too white privileged to see why that’s offensive.” Griffith sent another message right after using the N-word again, saying, “if you get mad at a white country bumpkin girl saying n****, we got bigger fish to fry.”
The exchange carried on with the whole group turning on Griffith and Williams for their horrendous comments. At one point, Travis Williams tried to defend himself again, stating that he made the comment because he hates “when people get offended for no reason.” Griffith also decided to support her comments by using the N-word again, calling her use of the word a compliment to the athlete’s score.
Immediately after the whole text exchange was plastered all over social media, Misfit Athletics co-founder, Drew Crandall, posted a video announcing that both Griffith and Williams have been removed from the company’s team, along with losing their sponsorship and benefits. After the loss of his sponsorship was announced, Travis Williams quickly posted a public apology on his Instagram stating he “did not mean any harm by defending this phrase.” There has been no public statement from Jessica Griffith, who promptly deleted her social media accounts after the text messages were made public.
Along with the racial remarks from the two top CrossFit athletes, CrossFit founder, Greg Glassman is once again in trouble for more insensitive comments he made about both the tragic death of George Floyd and the COVID-19 pandemic. Glassman’s tweet was in response to a tweet from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, where they addressed the current culture of racism and discrimination in our country. The CrossFit founder tweeted in response, “FLOYD-19”, making a mashup of both George Floyd’s name, the Minneapolis man killed by police last week, and COVID-19, the current viral pandemic.
Greg Glassman’s insensitive tweet was met with immense backlash from the entire CrossFit community. One person answered Glassman’s tweet by saying, “Thank you for showing you Black athletes how little you care about them.” Top CrossFit games athletes have shared the same sentiment, many publishing statements to their social media accounts. Brooke Wells, a 5x CrossFit Games athlete, posted her thoughts to Instagram saying, “it breaks my heart to say I do not want any association with their statements as an organization.” Wells is just one of multiple top CrossFit games athletes sharing the same sentiment about the issue. Many athletes of all levels have published statements of disgust and outrage to their social media accounts and blog websites.
Glassman’s thoughtless tweet and CrossFit HQ’s poor handling of the situation sparked outrage in CrossFit gym owners as well. As of today, many CrossFit affiliated gyms have published statements announcing their disgust with both the comments made by Glassman and the lack of accountability on CrossFit’s part. Most of the posts also included the gym’s announcement of disaffiliation from the CrossFit brand and a copy of their letter to CrossFit HQ. Magnus Strength and Conditioning, a gym from Portland, Oregon, is just one of many to declare their disaffiliation from CrossFit Inc., reassuring the decision has nothing to do with either finances or the current state of the government. Head coach Quint Fischer told members the choice is purely based on the fact that they, as a gym, “refuse to associate with such milquetoast fence-sitting during such a pivotal moment.”
Along with the fitness company losing many affiliated gyms, Reebok, title sponsor of the CrossFit Games, has announced today that they will end their partnership with CrossFit. In a statement to both Footwear News and Business Insider, Reebok said they “will fulfill our remaining contractual obligations in 2020.” But, the company will terminate all other sponsorships with CrossFit HQ going forward. Some are calling for Rogue Fitness, the other major sponsor of CrossFit HQ and the CrossFit Games, to also end their sponsorships with the company. (EDIT: After the time of posting this article, Rogue Fitness announced they would remove the CrossFit logo from the Rogue Invitational. Also, they will work with CrossFit Games to determine their next steps for the 2020 games and beyond.)
It seems as though CrossFit and its founder’s track record of insensitive comments may have finally caught up to the health and fitness company. Now, only time will tell whether or not other significant gyms and sponsors also decide to end their partnerships with the company, taking a stand against CrossFit’s perceived culture of racism throughout their organization. While there is a lot of negativity from the brand and others associated with them, it is incredible to watch the community take a stand for what is right. Hopefully, the immensely strong community will be able to rebound from all of this and create something better and more welcoming than CrossFit HQ. Or maybe CrossFit Inc. will be able to reevaluate their values and change their company for the better.
