Below is an article from another CrossFit. These are thoughts that have entered my brain and discussions with other athletes several times but was much better said by SOFCF so here it is:
Just throwing this out there, and I brought it up for the sake of argument to Dave and the other Games staff members post 10 Games just to get a reaction. I guess I've been hesitant to post because I needed time to build a case, or laziness. Probably laziness. What if Rich Froning is the fittest man on the planet? Does the rope climb prove fitness? Because folks this is what it boiled down to. If Rich knew rope climb, he would have won the games. Fitness, per CrossFit define, is work capacity across broad time and modal domains. This is increased work capacity across all three energy systems and across all ten general physical skills. Teach this animal rope climbing technique and he wins-that day, hands down. The guy climbed the 20 foot rope hand over hand in the final triplet of the games-twice. This comes after two previous triplets, and a few other simple tasks (like double Helen) the day prior. So did everyone else, but with a more efficient technique.
My argument stems from the acquiring of skills down the path toward fitness. I consider it the same as swimming. I know many very fit athletes that cannot swim, not because they didn't want to, it was because they've never been taught how. Maybe a better example would be learning a back flip. We'd all like to be able to execute back flips on the spot, but who's going to be the first to attempt this without instruction first? I guess a point could be made with this...if I were programming the games, one of those triplets would be 3 rounds: 10 back flips, 20 triple unders, and hand walk 100 feet (starting over if you fall). What? You can't? Well, I guess you're not fit.
This same sort of thing happened at the 2009 Games when Iceland Annie couldn't do a muscle-up. Everyone in the crowd was stunned, even though she wouldn't have won the games anyway. All Tanya Wagner had to do was finish and she was crowned, which is what happened. I believe she actually finished last in her heat. On a side note, Annie from 2009 and Rich from this year's games proved my genetics point from a previous post. Both were at the CF games with less than 6 months experience in CF. Who knew you had to be familiar with olympic rings in a fitness competition? Females aren't allowed on the rings in gymnastics to begin with. Where is the CrossFit list of movements that everyone must master? Why is this list so limited? If you must master a muscle up (considered a beginner skill for the rings) then you should be able to do an iron cross, or back and front levers as well I suppose. What if "Hold front lever for 15 seconds" was in place of "15 muscle-ups" at last year's final chipper?
How should the games be scored? By CrossFit definition of work capacity? Power output? Measurements of horsepower? That would almost be impossible, but that would also mean finishing first doesn't always mean fittest. If I measure my best Fran at 2:36 and I'm 70" and 180lbs that's 340 watts or .46 horsepower. Now take an individual who's 74" at 215 lbs and measure the same workout with a 3:00 completion that's 345 watts and .47 horsepower. That's a higher power output. That means the individual's body is capable of moving more weight faster which is more work done even though they are 24 seconds slower than my time. Who's fitter? But that's only one workout. That's why the CF Games must be a grueling test over multiple modalities and days, and until Sportvision.com comes up with the technology to measure horsepower we're stuck with who finishes nearest the top of each event.
