Sacris CrossFit is becoming Northglenn Health and Fitness. We wanted to be transparent in how we came to this decision.
Greg Glassman, CEO of CrossFit, has always been very opinionated and straight forward with how he feels. We’ve always been good with that. You know where he stands and he doesn’t hide behind his ideals. He’s been to war with Coca Cola and the health care system. He talks about curing chronic disease by eating right and exercise. The good thing is, you always know where he stands, the bad thing is – he is standing somewhere we can no longer be.
Background
Over the weekend there were emails posted between him and a CrossFit affiliate in Seattle. We won’t get into all the details but you can read about it here. This was concerning, his response showed lack of leadership and strong emotion. We didn’t know the background, how close they were and other transcripts that may have transpired. We decided to wait and see. There was outrage among some affiliates.
After that there was a tweet he sent in response to a comment from the Institute for Health Metrics in which he mocked them by responding with : “Floyd-19”. No explanation. We don’t know what he meant, and we won’t assume the worst without having some additional background. Everyone makes mistakes and Twitter isn’t the best place to have a constructive conversation. The internet is filled with bullies and we won’t back down from a bully – we will ignore them however, and unfortunately we have had to do that. One of my mentors told me recently “when you wrestle with a pig 2 things happen: #1. You get dirty. #2. The pig likes it.” At this point we don’t know enough to make a decision about how to move forward with Northglenn Health and Fitness.
By the time we were made aware of the tweet, we had already been on calls with our mentors and hundreds of gym owners from around the world. (CrossFit and non CrossFit alike). Some were jumping ship from CrossFit. We continued to decide to wait and see. Jennifer offered up this to others on the call:
“If Chris had said something like this, would we all jump ship? Of course not. We would contact him personally, we wouldn’t attack him. We would ask him what he meant. We would explain how his comments came across. We would communicate with love and understanding. We would try and help. ” I added, “Who is doing that for Greg?” “Does he employ only ‘Yes Men’? Does he have anyone who is truly a friend to him that has asked him what he meant, or is everyone coming at him with attacks?” I can tell you how I react to attacks – not well. It’s human nature to become defensive and maybe feel like you were backed into a corner.
CrossFit as a methodology is brilliant!
CrossFit, as a methodology, is brilliant! It has everything you need to perform better in every day life with more energy, less pain and more ease of movement. There is so much good that has come from CrossFit to the world. Those reasons are why people want to stay. And honestly, some people are afraid of just doing the wrong thing. If you stay, are you racist? If you leave, are you being bullied?
Here is why we will no longer be known as Sacris CrossFit. Ugh. That was so sad to write for the first time. So sad that we have some tears in our eyes. (Imagine gyms that have been around for 10 years?? We saw more than one tear up and lose their words today – they are also making the change.) This was NOT an easy decision.
One of the gym owners we know was on a Zoom call with Greg within the past few days. Here is an article that sums up the events, leading up to and including that call, pretty well. – This was not written by the gym owner we know, but by someone else that was on the Zoom call with Greg.
“I do not mourn George Floyd” – Greg Glassman
Quote from article above: “When an affiliate owner from Minneapolis was given the chance to speak, the call took a turn. She asked Glassman to speak about CrossFit’s stance on the current racial tensions in the country and the Black Lives Matter movement. CrossFit had been notably silent on the topic. Greg’s opening response was, “I do not mourn George Floyd.” He actually repeated that exact line several times. He also denied any notion that racism might exist in some police forces and he seemed to downplay racism at all. The discussion got increasingly contentious. Greg was self-righteous and confident. The affiliate owner from Minneapolis was well-spoken and defended herself well. Apparently, her facility was mere blocks from where Floyd was killed and her community was still reeling.”
Besides the comments in the article we were told that Greg and others from CrossFit HQ allegedly laughed at her, a CrossFit affiliate, for asking them to speak to black affiliate owners. In our friend’s words, he tried to make her feel small and stupid.
We are truly disgusted, in every sense of the word, at his actions. That was our final straw.
Our community has always been built on a welcoming platform. All ages and abilities. We never addressed race or gender and maybe that is wrong. But when we say all ages and abilities we truly mean everyone. Can you imagine coming to us for advice, and us laughing at you, belittling you, mocking what you are feeling? We stand behind the CrossFit methodology and our classes are NOT going to change one bit. We will just not be giving him another penny and we will not be legally allowed to use the word CrossFit any longer. We will still have WODs and Olympic Lifts, and yes Fran and assault bikes. (sorry ;))
Who knows, besides the benefits to CrossFit, there is also the widespread fear that it instills in people that are not personally familiar with what CrossFit means. Maybe this will open up opportunities for us to help more people in the Northglenn, Thornton and Westminster areas with their health and fitness. If you are one of them, please meet with us to learn what we are all about!
Thank you for trusting us with your health and fitness,
Coach Patrick and Coach Jennifer – Northglenn Health and Fitness