by Kate Gildner
The CrossFit Open was established in 2011 as the initial, worldwide qualification round for the CrossFit Games. That meant your results were meant to rank you against other athletes in your gender and age range. Therefore, inherently we were programmed to compete with not only the person next to you in your gym, but universally against every other CrossFit athlete.
CrossFit saw a huge expansion in affiliate gyms with the addition of CrossFit Games in 2007. As of 2025, there are roughly 10,000+ affiliated gyms across 150+ countries.1 This prompted CrossFit to eventually expand The Open from a Rx Athlete event to include Scaled and Foundations categories. This changed the Open to being a high level qualifier to a community driven activity. Most athletes who participate in The Open are not going to The Games. “The percentage of CrossFit Open participants who make it to the CrossFit Games is extremely small, roughly 0.01% to 0.05%.” That’s why your score doesn’t matter.2
What does matter is your participation. Current studies suggest that up to 90% of adults generally don’t push themselves outside their comfort zone. As adults, embarrassment and failure are deeply seated and psychological fears that drive our everyday behaviors. However, research shows that breaking out of your comfort zone often leads to higher confidence, growth, and satisfaction. “While 41% of people feel fear when stepping outside their comfort zone, 70% report feeling a sense of courage afterward.” Furthermore, researchers found that the most rewarding activity is one that stretches you to provide support or engage with others.3
That’s what matters. Your support and engagement with others. CrossFit Ellis, and many other affiliates, now use The Open to build their communities, to allow their athletes to push outside of their comfort zones with the support of others. And ultimately share in the celebration of yourself and others. There are few places on earth where you will find a place where other people are genuinely excited about your accomplishments. With no strings attached and no ulterior motive.
Your scores should only be used as a quantifiable piece of information for your personal growth. As a celebration of your hard work, and a catalyst for your ongoing improvement. Do not use your score as a tool to compare yourself to other athletes. No single other person has been on the journey you’ve been on, has faced the mental and physical challenges that you have, and not one single person has had the same experience as you. So why would you compare your results as if they mean the same?
Going into this next Open Workout, I want you to think, how can I do better, for myself? How can I do one more rep than I think I can do? How can I push my mental and physical toughness further outside of my comfort zone? Use your score, and others’, purely as a conversation starter. Because your CrossFit Open score doesn’t matter.
1 Rochet, Stephane. 2025. Crossfit: How Crossfit Changed the World
2 Crossfit. 2026. Crossfit Games: Finding the Fittest on Earth
3 Degges-White, Suzanne. 2024. Psychology Today: Don’t Let Your Comfort Zone Be a Barrier.