Ep. 052: Team Eligibility Requirements with Adrian Bozman & Kurtis Bowler

“It’s never our preference to tell an individual or a team, ‘You are not able to compete.’ That is not something that we are interested in doing unless it is deemed necessary due to a violation of the rules or the inability to prove that they have met the eligibility requirements. … It is our responsibility to do that to preserve the fairness across the competitive field.” — Adrian BozmanCrossFit Competition Director Adrian Bozman and Athlete Relationship Manager Kurtis Bowler join Chase Ingraham on the podcast to address team eligibility requirements for the 2022 CrossFit Games season. Bozman and Bowler explain the elaborate process of investigating team eligibility accusations, from when an anonymous claim is made to the final decision after a thorough investigation. The trio reviews the requirements athletes need to meet, as outlined in the rulebook, to be eligible to compete on an affiliate team. They also list various forms of acceptable evidence to prove eligibility during an investigation. Bozman and Bowler clarify the decision to disqualify CrossFit Nordic member Viktor Langsved from competition and explain how athletes and teams can best avoid a potential future disqualification from the Games season.Chapters0:00-1:40 - Intro1:40-3:35 - What prompts an investigation?3:35-4:19 - How athletes are contacted.4:19-9:14 - Review of Section 1.14 of the Rulebook – Affiliate Cup Team Eligibility Requirements9:14-16:45 - The investigation process & the “big picture”16:45-26:46 - CrossFit Nordic’s case & how to meet the criteria26:46-27:49 - Clarification of the Rulebook27:49-30:31 - What documentation should teams be prepared to show?30:31-31:35 - Final thoughts from Adrian Bozman31:35-32:09 - Outro“We investigate allegations when we receive them. … We have a responsibility to make sure the competition is fair across the board to the field. So, we take those allegations seriously. … We do investigate them to the best of our abilities.” — Adrian Bozman“We also consider the team circumstance. Sometimes teams have other requirements or commitments via sponsorship, they have to travel away from the team, sometimes team members get sick. There are things that go on within the lifespan of every member of that team that we do try to take into consideration as well so it’s not just a static number, and again, all this is done in an effort to give the benefit of the doubt to the team and that establishes a very low threshold in many cases for teams to meet.” — Adrian Bozman