Reebok, CrossFit and Coach Greg Glassman

A few of our members have noticed that the CrossFit section has disappeared from the Reebok store recently. This is because Reebok has stopped sponsoring CrossFit. It has absolutely no effect on CrossFit Kyoto but is related to a wider problem which recently arose for CrossFit in general.

I am writing as a member of the most privileged group in the entire world, I am a white, middle class male from the UK, probably the only way I could have been luckier at birth would be to have been born in the USA. I have no first hand knowledge of the struggles of black people in the USA so please take my opinions with several grains of salt.

On June 6th Greg Glassman, the founder of CrossFit, sent out a tweet which caused a backlash against him, and CrossFit in general, as it appeared racist. The tweet was badly timed and hugely insensitive, especially considering the terrible circumstances in the USA at the moment, but I do not believe it was racist or that CrossFit is a racist organisation.

Coach Glassman’s tweet was in reply to one from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) which said "racism and discrimination are critical public health issues that demand an urgent response." Apparently the IHME was responsible for the response to COVID-19 in the USA, a response which Coach Glassman believed was completely wrong. His controversial tweet meant to say that an organisation which had failed in its response to COVID-19 would not have an effective response to racism and discrimination either.

In the USA right now any appearance of racism is a huge issue and so Reebok, as well as many affiliates and famous athletes, have cut ties with CrossFit. The reaction has been so severe that Coach Glassman has had to quit as CEO and sell CrossFit.

Are Coach Glassman or CrossFit racist? I don’t think so. It’s there on page 2 of the CrossFit L1 training guide which states that the aim of CrossFit is “a broad, general, and inclusive (my emphasis) fitness.“ One of the trainers at my first L1 cert back in 2009 was black. Would a racist organisation employ black coaches, run fundraisers for the residents of rural Mombassa in Kenya? Would racists create a foundation which partners with “several organizations working to share the CrossFit community with kids growing up in adverse circumstances such as homelessness, poverty, and addiction.“ Knowing that many of those kids will be black?

At CrossFit Kyoto we were delighted with the direction CrossFit was taking, following Coach Glassman’s focus on health rather than elite sports: creating at-home versions of the WOD for the elderly https://www.crossfit.com/at-home/jug-deadlifts-and-thrusters, developing the Masters’ and adaptive athlete training courses, and regularly publishing articles on how modern lifestyle diseases can be reversed by diet and exercise. This fit well with our own vision and we hope the new CEO will continue with this emphasis.

CrossFit Kyoto has been, and always will be, open to people of all colours, genders, religions and sexual orientations. It doesn’t matter who you are, we want to help you eat well, move more and feel better so that we all can live & give our best in life.