Opinion | CrossFit as a sport will survive, but CrossFit Inc. is now in serious question after founder’s ‘Floyd-19’ tweet
- The branded fitness regime, founded in 2000, now finds itself at odds with pretty much everyone in the sport of CrossFit
- The unprecedented situation leaves athletes, sponsors, competitions and gyms in a precarious situation – what to call themselves now?
Major sponsors, including Reebok and Rogue Fitness, star athletes such as Rich Froning and Tia-Clair Toomey, and more than a 110 former affiliated gyms across the world have created a cavernous divide between the sport itself and the private company that runs and controls the brand, the name “CrossFit” and the CrossFit Games.
Everything stems from a tweet CrossFit Inc. founder and chief executive officer Greg Glassman sent out over the weekend, writing “FLOYD-19” in response to a Twitter post by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) which featured a picture that stated “Racism is a public health issue”.
The original post, which stated “racism and discrimination are critical public health issues that demand an urgent response #BlackLivesMatter” linked to the IHME’s director’s statement in which he condemns the recent events and states the IHME “can and will do more to illuminate the public health impacts of systemic racism.”
Glassman added a second comment to his original post, taking a further shot at the IHME, stating: “Your failed model quarantined us and now you’re going to model a solution to racism? George Floyd’s brutal murder sparked riots nationally. Quarantine alone is ‘accompanied in every age and under all political regimes by an undercurrent of suspicion, distrust, and riots.’ Thanks!”