Russian and Belarusian crossfitters can compete internationally, but not under the flag of their homeland

Author: Ondra Marienka

04.03.2022

2 minuty čtení

During the course of today you may have seen in our magazine that the International Powerlifting Federation (IPF) International Committee has agreed to provisionally exclude athletes and officials of the Russian and Belarusian federations from international, regional or world powerlifting championships. Various world sports committees are taking a similar step, thus restricting the access of Russian and Belarusian athletes to competitions. However, everything is not happening without reason. The committees have resorted to these circumstances after Russian Federation went to war with Ukraine.

Athletes and officials of the Russian and Belarusian Power Triathlon Federations cannot participate in any championships

Powerlifting Soutěže

04.03.2022

2 minuty čtení

CrossFit has a similar approach to the International Committee of the Power Triathlon Federation, which has "only" banned athletes from competing under their national flags and names. Therefore, if a Russian or Belarusian CrossFitter wants to continue competing internationally, they must compete under a white "neutral" flag.

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CrossFit commented as follows:

CrossFit unequivocally condemns the actions of the Russian military in Ukraine and our hearts go out to the innocent people. We will separate our actions and our sport from the national actors involved, but will continue to support our independent affiliate owners, coaches and athletes within our global CrossFit community.
The CrossFit Open is a global fitness test run by thousands of small and independent gyms around the world, with nearly 300,000 athletes already participating in the competition. During the season, we do not recognize the governments of Russia or Belarus and will remove Russian and Belarusian flags and names from individual and team athlete profiles. CrossFit will also cease licensing or producing competitions in the aforementioned countries until further notice."

Russian CrossFitter Roman Khrennikov posted a statement on his Instagram about the situation, condemning the violence and calling for "peace and friendship". Khrennikov recently secured a multi-year visa to travel to the U.S., where he will finally get a chance to compete in person at the CrossFit Games.