Rich Froning on Men's Health Cover, Open 20.5 Penalties

Rich Froning is featured on the cover of the January 2020 edition of Men's Health Magazine. CrossFit has issued penalties for the final Open workout.

Monday, December 2nd, 2019

Good morning and welcome to the WODDITY podcast for news about CrossFit. We are a daily podcast, Monday through Friday, doing CrossFit news in five minutes or less.

My name is Ben Garves and today is Monday, the 2nd of December, 2019. Welcome back and I hope you had an incredible holiday weekend.

Some of your have deeply cherished your time with friends and family over the past couple of days, and some of you may feel like you’ve just barely survived. Regardless of which side of the spectrum you’re on, I have some words for you:

The fact that relationships are hard is not lost on anybody. This doesn’t have to be a label you slap on everything, but even the best relationship in every category is one that is going to take time and effort, just as much as it takes humility, respect, tolerance, and forgiveness. It doesn’t matter if the relationship you’re struggling with is a friendship, courtship, engagement, marriage, or parent, child, in-law, girlfriend, or boyfriend.

Remember that those relationships are two-way streets. You can extend your hand for a handshake or your body for a hug, but the embrace isn’t complete if they don’t meet you half-way. And that’s not me saying you should disagree with someone over politics and refuse to find an amicable solution if they don’t at least show compassion to your views. That’s me saying you’ll never find happiness if you can’t find it yourself, on your own, and independent of those around you.

Don’t invest your sense of self-worth, your happiness, and your sanity in the happiness of other people around you. You’ll never be happy if you wait for them to be happy first. You can be compassionate, you can be respectful, you can be tolerant, but you can’t be responsible. So, as a high-level “lessons learned” from the past four days, find your happiness. Be your happiness. Share that light, but don’t let those around you be responsible for how bright you shine.

You can be bright, you can be gorgeous, you can be strong, and you can do all those things all on your own. I believe in you. And if you’re hurting from some of your interactions, know that you’re not alone. I’ve felt what you’re feeling, but the show must go on. So here we are. Literally recording a show.

Okay, enough of that post-thanksgiving emotional digestions. Let’s talk CrossFit news. 

20.5 Penalties Released

CrossFit announced fifteen penalties for the final workout of the 2020 CrossFit Open on Friday. The total count was nine minor penalties on athletes like Jamie Greene, Emma McQuaid, Gabriela Migala, Sabrina Caron, Haley Adams, and Jeffrey Adler. Those were for things like failure to lock-out on the muscle-ups, reset the monitor on the rower, or not getting high enough with your wall-balls. Of the remaining six major penalties, two big names stand out. Emelie Lundberg was penalized for “consistent lack of lockout in muscle-up.” You may recognize her name as one of the standout talents at the Filthy150, which saw her tie with Steph Chung for 6th, overall. The second big name was Logan Collins, who was also cited for consistent lack of lock-out on the muscle-ups.

Who Won the 2020 CrossFit Open?

While CrossFit is still doing their deeper review of video submissions, the release of the 20.5 penalties for top-40 athletes means we’re close to being able to finalize Patrick Vellner and Sara Sigmundsdottir as the winners of the 2020 CrossFit Open.

Rich Froning on the Cover of Men’s Health

The other large story we’re following this beautiful Monday morning is the huge feature story Men’s Health magazine did on Rich Froning. That’s because Froning will be featured on the January 2020 cover of the periodical. I could’ve said “magazine” but it’s more fun to say “periodical”. Men’s Health has deemed Froning the “Greatest CrossFit Games Athlete In History”. They talked through Rich Froning’s diet, why Rich believes CrossFit garners such a loyal following, how he found and fell in love with the sport, and more.

I know it’s barely December, but you can actually buy a copy of the Froning edition of the magazine already.

Alrighty, it was brief and it was deep, but that’s it for news about CrossFit for Monday, December 2nd. Thanks for listening. Please be sure to rate, review, subscribe, and share. For WODDITY, I’m Ben Garves. We’ll chat tomorrow.