Crossfit Games 14.2 Continues to Take the Open in a Different Direction

Dave Castro and Crossfit HQ unveiled the Open WOD 14.2 tonight live from Miami, Florida at I am Crossfit and the live throw down between Talayna Fortunato and Camille Leblac-Bazinet didn't disappoint. I was wrong about the WOD, the movements and the winner of the throw down but, two weeks into the Open, one thing is becoming very apparent; the Crossfit Open isn't for everyone anymore. I wrote leading into the Open that it had two goals, to get the fittest to Regionals and to also be inclusive so that athletes from all different ability levels could participate. Through the first two weeks though, I think the second goal no longer exists.

First let's talk about the workout, it's an overhead squat and chest to bar pull-up ladder where you have 3 minutes to complete two rounds of 10 OHS at 95/65 pounds and 10 C2B pull-ups. If and when you complete that, you have another three minutes to complete another two rounds of 12 of each and so on until can't complete them within the 3 minutes. It's a brutal combination and although the weight is relatively light, both the OHS and the C2B pull-up are a step above basic movements.

While an athlete of my stature generally approaches every WOD with the only goal being survival, I do think I'll try to mimick Talayna's plan. She said afterwards that she wanted to do the OHS unbroken, then break up the C2B as needed. That will be my plan as well, for as long as I can manage. OHS are certainly not a strength of mine and anytime I'm gasping for breath, which will certainly happen after some C2B pull-ups, they are particularly awful.
As to my feelings about the general programming of the first two weeks, kicking off the Open with double unders was a sign that we all should have taken seriously because Castro and HQ certainly didn't tap the brakes with 14.2. In fact Castro even said right after the throwdown that they want to turn it up and make 14.2 more difficult than 14.1 because they felt like anyone could so 14.1
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While I don't think this is a bad WOD, I do think it, much like 14.1, it excludes a significant portion of the CF community. Taken by itself, I would have had even less of a issue with this but when paired with 14.1, and coming as the first two WODs, I think they isolated a large portion of their 200K population. Like I said last week, if that is direction that HQ wants to go with the Open next year, that's 100% ok with me. I fully support and understand that stance, if that's the direction that they choose to take the Open. Most competitions you sign up for have RX standards that they want their competitors to meet anyways. My hope though is that next year they don't have such a huge campaign to get anyone and everyone to sign up and participate because it's not about participation anymore. This is a competition to find the elite, and if you're not among those then save your $20. I know I will.