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Opinion | CrossFit Games 2020: youth movement nipping at heels of veterans as finalists set for showdown
- Of the 10 competitors in the 2020 CrossFit Games finale, a number are still in their early twenties
- Professional sports have been trending younger for years, but that doesn’t mean counting out experience just yet
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An interesting theme emerges when you look at the ages of the 10 athletes who will be vying for the two titles this weekend at the 2020 CrossFit Games in Aromas, California.
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While reigning champion Mat Fraser is 30, and women’s champion Tia-Clair Toomey is 27, there is a distinct trend with some of the remaining competitors.
On the men’s side there is 24-year-old Samuel Kwant, 21-year-old rookie sensation Justin Medeiros and 26-year-old Jeffrey Adler, who will join Noah Ohlsen, 29, in trying to unseat Fraser. On the women’s side it is a similar story, with 25-year-old Brooke Wells and, of course, 19-year-old Haley Adams.
The two will be joined by 31-year-old Kari Pearce and 27-year-old Katrin Davidsdottir. In 2018, CrossFit blog Morning Chalk Up noted the average age of a male competitor at the Games was 27, and for women it was 28.
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Looking at accumulated data from the previous years, this average age has stayed relatively the same, with some obvious outliers on both sides. But there has also been some notable injuries to younger competitors, such as Kwant and 25-year-old Jonne Konski, who came seventh in the Games’ first leg and just missed out on the final five.
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