Grit Haus Team Disqualified From 2024 CrossFit Season

CrossFit CLT The Grit Haus is faced with one more early exit to their team’s CrossFit season. Last yr, an injury cut their 2023 CrossFit Games week short, and now they’ve officially been disqualified for the 2024 CrossFit Games season because of a costly mistake throughout the Open.

The team out of CrossFit CLT in Charlotte, NC, received a notification from CrossFit HQ stating that they were disqualified from Quarterfinals because of an athlete on their team roster performing an Open workout (and submitting the video as an official submission) at a location apart from the affiliate.

CrossFit CLT The Grit Haus team manager Kevin Steinhaus and the team as a complete have owned as much as the error and are disheartened by the situation.

The team made it to the Games last yr but needed to withdraw after Steinhaus suffered an injury during an event, making this yr’s abrupt ending even worse.

The Details

Steinhaus has spoken out concerning the incident in hopes of drawing attention to “human error” and expressing to the community that they intended to follow the foundations.

Steinhaus tells the Morning Chalk Up he received an email from CrossFit HQ earlier within the week asking for clarification on the members on their team roster. One of those members is Josh Hardin, who ended up redoing 24.1 at his workplace — a fireplace station in Charlotte.

“I got that email on Tuesday that we were ineligible because John Hardin did the workout for twenty-four.1 outside of the affiliate,” Steinhaus said.

Hardin did the workout originally on the affiliate but redid it later for private reasons. His rating was also not used as a part of the team rating, but CrossFit HQ stood firm on its rule. The team used a rating from one in all the alternates on their roster.

Rule 1.13 within the 2024 CrossFit Games Season Rulebook states that to confirm an athlete’s eligibility, teams must have the opportunity to supply video evidence that features “[each] team member’s performance of their submitted rating of all the Open workouts at their team’s affiliate.”

The rulebook states, individually but in addition in rule 1.13, that “[each] Open workout should be performed in the identical physical location because the team’s affiliate.”

What They Are Saying

“We understand that rules should be followed. But I believe there must be some wiggle room for certain situations. It just seems that they [CrossFit HQ] haven’t any situational awareness that there might be some human error,” Steinhaus said.

He adds that CrossFit HQ stood firm on the enforcement of the rule and didn’t accept any of the suggestions made by the team to switch Hardin’s rating back to the unique rating he posted when he performed 24.1 on the affiliate.

The Morning Chalk Up contacted CrossFit HQ for a response, and a spokesperson said the corporate stands behind its “short and strict” rule.

“Athletes must be on the team roster, complete the workout(s) on the affiliate that hosts the team they’re on, and submit all of their scores through the affiliate,” the spokesperson said. “In Josh Hardin’s case from CrossFit CLT The Grit Haus, his 24.1 rating was submitted from his [firehouse] and never through his affiliate, so he’s been deemed ineligible.”

The spokesperson continued, saying, “CrossFit spends considerable time throughout the review process verifying each team member’s submission to be eligible for Semifinals qualification. Other teams have been ruled ineligible for a similar reason and CrossFit will publish the entire list on the close of the Quarterfinals stage.”

The Bottom Line

While it is a disappointing ending for the team, two members are planning on doing the Age Group Quarterfinals and the team hopes to take part in a separate competition together within the near future.

“I just wish to make sure that people know that we were attempting to do the fitting thing and it was pure human error. We weren’t attempting to skirt the road because that’s just not who we’re,” Steihaus said. “We attempt to follow rules and that’s just who we’re as a community at The Grit Haus and that’s who we’re as a team.”