Josh Bunch visits the Arnold Sports Festival to find out what the sports world really thinks of CrossFit.
For three years running, CrossFit has made quite the Arnold appearance. From the 2010 sectional event to 2011’s Rogue and Again Faster exhibitions to the 2012 Reebok CrossFit Games Open, CrossFit has delivered.
When CrossFit is at the Arnold, it’s part of a showcase of sporting diversity. It’s one thing to troll the crowd at the CrossFit Games in Carson, where you’re surrounded by CrossFit people, but it’s very different altogether to saunter around at an event where CrossFitters are by far in the minority.
With a diverse population being exposed to CrossFit at the Arnold, a few questions come to mind. Is CrossFit really spreading the globe like we believe it to be? And if CrossFit tests elite fitness, what do elite specialists—or “elite spectators”—think of the sport of fitness?