A another controversy in CrossFit® after last week with Team No Track, this time it happened in online races: the problem was with Emma Tall, athlete who participated in the CrossFit® German Throwdown, held in Germany.
Held at a distance, each in its own box, this event also named 5 athletes for each category (men, women and teams), who have won an invitation to the Nobull CrossFit® Games.
The women's podium on that occasion was composed of the following names:
1 - Kristen Holte
2- Jacqueline Dahlstrom
3 - Katrin Tanja Davidsdottir
4 - Emilia Leppänen
5 - Emma Tall
But apparently there was a mistake! Reviewing the videos, CrossFit® Inc noticed aillegality and changed the athlete's result. With this there has been a noticeable change in the last place on the leaderboard for the Games.
Emma Tall dropped to eighth place, while Samantha Briggs, formerly sixth, is ascent to fifth position.
Index
The reason for Emma Tall's loss of positions
According to CrossFit®, Emma Tall's descent in the rankings is due to a penalty, which cost her a few points. In event 6, the trainer who accompanied the athlete in the Clean & Jerk sequence e burpees helped her holding the barbell on the ground, so it wouldn't bounce, so she'd have more ease in performing burpees. With this gesture, according to the judges, she she would be able to speed up her time in the Wod.
On the other hand, although the coach made things right "Easier" for his athlete, CrossFit® hadn't created any rules that would have made this illegal in competition. The video shows that the coach does not make this move in bad faith with Tall, in fact, at no time, he tries to hide that he is helping her.
Watch the video:
Although it has now been made known, still it is not officially known how this story will end . Briggs didn't post anything about it, but Tall, instead, let it out by saying:
“I have read the rules and followed them. You accepted it, approved the video, and congratulated me. We played by the rules you gave us. Then you changed your mind for some of us. "
Creation of a standard for online competitions
This isn't the first controversy for online racing, even al BCC (Brazilian CrossFit® Championship), there was a suspected case with theVenezuelan athlete Omar Martinez.
Some competitors have complained about one alleged bad faith of the athlete, which according to claims, he would use 35-pound discs in Event 4 instead of 45-pounds. With this, the athlete could have increased his potential in the race and thus get a better placement within the event.
He then posted a video in his profile where he weighed each disc on a scale:
From the events that happened the need for a new way of inspection becomes clear by the Games right now, especially for online competitions.
It would take one standardization of weights and the sending of judges from the company itself in places where athletes are training. This could be a way to eliminate problems like these.
It is worth mentioning that as well as we have coaches who have level 1, level 2 and level 3 company, the same happens with judges.
CrossFit® itself has the course for judges spread of the brand all over the world, so sending accredited judges would not be an impossible action to perform at all! What do you think?