New CrossFit Games Policy Requires Athletes To Compete According To ‘Sex Assigned At Birth’
The CrossFit Games have instituted a new policy requiring all athletes to compete in the gender division that corresponds with their birth sex. This is a reversal on CrossFit's previous stance that honored gender identity over biological sex.
"All athletes are welcome to participate in CrossFit Games events," the sport’s newly released 2025 rule book reads. "However, to maintain fairness and the integrity of the competition, athletes must compete in the division corresponding to their gender assigned at birth."
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While the new policy never specifically mentions the word transgender, it does state that no exceptions will be made "based on legal, medical, or personal documentation that reflects a gender other than the athlete’s gender assigned at birth."
The policy does, however, acknowledge that "determinations will be made on an individual basis" for the rare exception of athletes born with differences of sex development (otherwise known as DSD or intersex).
CrossFit is a sport based on brute strength, speed and endurance. For each WOD (or workout of the day), there is a suggested weight for males and a suggested (lower) weight for females. Men and women also frequently have different "prescribed" rep counts and time caps for finishing the WODs.
CrossFit Games Has A Complicated History With 'Gender Identity'
Trans-identifying males participating in the women's division has been an ongoing issue for CrossFit for more than a decade.
In 2014, transgender athlete Chloie Jonsson filed a $2.5-million discrimination lawsuit after being denied the "right" to compete as a woman.
"The fundamental, ineluctable fact is that a male competitor who has a sex reassignment procedure still has a genetic makeup that confers a physical and physiological advantage over women," a lawyer for CrossFit argued at the time.
The case was ultimately settled out of court.
Men's and women's CrossFit competitions often involve different weights, different rep counts and different time caps.
(Photo by Andriy Zhyhaylo/Obozrevatel/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
In 2018, though, CrossFit changed its policy to allow athletes to compete in whatever division matched their preferred gender.
"In the 2019 CrossFit competitive season, starting with the Open, transgender athletes are welcome to participate in the division with which they identify," CrossFit founder and CEO Greg Glassman said at the time. "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."
Not surprisingly, none of these transgender athletes were biological women begging to compete with men.
Every year, the CrossFit Games seek to find "The Fittest on Earth." And every year, the fittest man on Earth lifts heavier, runs faster and finishes the workouts sooner than the fittest woman on Earth. It's not an "inclusion" issue — it's a biological one.
CrossFit made the right call in 2025. And they need to stand by it.