Starting in 2019, trans CrossFit athletes will be allowed to compete in the annual CrossFit games
Starting next year, transgender CrossFitters will be allowed to compete in the annual CrossFit games. The 2019 registration form will recognize gender identity instead of sex assigned at birth.
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‘In the 2019 CrossFit competitive season, starting with the Open, transgender athletes are welcome to participate in the division with which they identify,’ founder and CEO Greg Glassman told Them.us.
‘This is the right thing to do. CrossFit believes in the potential, capacity, and dignity of every athlete. We are proud of our LGBT community, including our transgender athletes, and we want you here with us.’
Alyssa Royce, a CrossFit-affiliate gym owner and board member of nonprofit the Out Foundation, worked closely with CrossFit leaders to introduce this new policy.
‘I think it’s important to realize that CrossFit is the largest fitness brand in the world, and where we go, others — we hope — will follow,’ Royce said.
‘Now the sport that we have known and loved has taken the biggest step towards full inclusion,’ said Out Foundation executive director Will Lanier.
Lanier noted that over 5,000 LGBTI athletes participated in the OUTWOD events. OUTWOD is an LGBTI-focused CrossFit group. Their name refers to ‘WOD,’ or ‘Work Out of the Day.’ WOD is CrossFit code for the series of daily activities given to athletes by coaches.
‘While our work may never be done, we are one giant step closer,’ Lanier said.
Reactions from trans CrossFitters
‘To hear that it has become a reality, it’s a nice weight off the shoulders,’ said Bennett Kaspar, who has trained at a CrossFit gym in Los Angeles for six years. ‘It feels like there’s one less thing on the to-do list in terms of advocating for trans people. Like, check — we got that one done.’
Kaspar, a trans man, wanted to compete in the CrossFit Games in the past. However, he would have been forced to enter in the women’s category due to the previous policy.
‘Can you imagine if I had shown up to compete as the gender I was assigned at birth? That would be ridiculous,’ Kaspar said.
Kaspar has never paid to register for the CrossFit exercises for those who do compete in the Games. This was due to their non-inclusive policy. In 2019, he will register for the first time.
‘Now I’ll play for the leaderboard like everybody else,’ he said.
Anything else?
This new, inclusive policy comes just a couple months after CrossFit fired a former executive for saying LGBTI Pride is a ‘sin.’
