The final event of the 2020 CrossFit Games in October was a doozy. Named “Atalanta”, it was a spectacularly difficult test of strength and endurance: a one-mile run, followed by 100 handstand push-ups, 200 single-leg squats and 300 pull-ups. Then another one-mile run, all while wearing a weighted vest. After crossing the finish line first, diminutive American Kari Pearce , known for her washboard abs and upbeat personality, collapsed to the ground, broken, exhausted and sore, with a huge smile on her face. “I liked that workout,” she managed to say between staggering breaths as medical staff checked on her well-being. This is both the appeal, and the confusion, of CrossFit. To disciples of the branded functional fitness regime, who train in more than 150,000 “boxes” all over the world, beating yourself mentally and physically to the point of exhaustion is the point of the sport. To outsiders, it appears to be madness, a fringe pastime where gym goers spend all day doing, or talking about, CrossFit. The sport’s staying power has withstood the test of time. Started in 2000 in a California garage, it has been the scorn of fitness and sporting circles, and the mainstream press, who have labelled it ‘dangerous’ and ‘cultlike’. Its athletes, largely ignored by traditional sporting enthusiasts, have turned to social media where they have amassed impressive followings and subsequent sponsorship deals with heavyweights such as Nike and Reebok. Mat Fraser, the five-time men’s CrossFit champion , has 2.3 million Instagram followers. In comparison, Tony Ferguson, one of the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s more well-known fighters in a sport that started a few years before CrossFit, has 2.4 million followers. So while the sport’s stars, which include women’s four-time champion Tia-Clair Toomey, may still not be known outside its own inner circle, their marketing power can’t be denied. CrossFit’s 2021 season still has a lot of unanswered questions Multiple documentaries about the annual CrossFit Games have made their way onto Netflix, while YouTube videos are plentiful, showcasing the sport’s appeal, which at this point lies largely within the United States. The heart of the sport, looking at it from an optimist’s perspective, is that it promotes both healthy living and eating, along with an accompanying sense of community and accountability for those looking to stay fit at any age of life. Now CrossFit enters an entirely new and unfounded era. Gone is founder and former CEO Greg Glassman, ousted in a whirlwind of controversy last year , and replaced by tech entrepreneur Eric Roza, who bought the company for an undisclosed amount with American investment firm Berkshire Partners. At one point early in 2020, Glassman risked bankrupting the company due to racist and sexist actions, but estimates before his downfall had the company worth close to US$4 billion. The question remains for Roza, a progressive, cerebral and incredibly intelligent owner: can he continue pulling the brand and the sport from the ashes, and take it into mainstream culture all over the world, or will its unconventional appeal do just that, keep it on the sidelines? Of all the threats to the Chinese Communist Party, its biggest may lie within its own citizens and glaring demographic trends. China is facing severe levels of obesity and rising rates of chronic illness with over half of its adults overweight, according to a government report. The country is ageing faster than any modern nation, as China’s population is expected to peak at 1.44 billion in 2029 before entering an unstoppable decline. This is not to say the CCP hasn’t recognised and started trying to combat the problem. President Xi Jinping has poured billions of dollars into sporting infrastructure, hoping the population will embrace active lifestyles and take some of the burden off the system’s health care system by dropping rates of chronic diseases caused by poor diet and sedentary living. CrossFit’s growth in China, once seen as a bright spot, paints an interesting picture of a larger metanarrative where geopolitics have at times hampered the CCP’s ability to court more Westernised ideals of healthy eating and fitness being a top priority over academics and wealth accumulation. The first CrossFit coaching seminar in China was in Shanghai in 2014 when the company had just two affiliated gyms, and by 2017 the number of boxes had jumped to 143. CrossFit has hosted two Sanctionals in China before the coronavirus shut down the sport, in Shanghai and Chengdu. ‘Lessons from Covid’ from Hong Kong’s top CrossFit coach But CrossFit’s growth in China hit a brick wall, with only 90 affiliates left at the end of 2020. Given the massive population, it pales in comparison to places such as Hong Kong, which has eight affiliates, and South Korea, which has close to 60. Outgoing US president Donald Trump’s trade war with China , where the Republican has taken a hardline approach since taking office in 2016, may have something to do with the sport’s stagnation. There is no indication incoming Democratic president Joe Biden will shift the tone, meaning frosty relationships between the two appear here to stay. So, can CrossFit venture back into the country and recapture its previous exponential growth? Roza told the South China Morning Post that he is more than aware doing business in China will be much different than in other countries. “We’ve got to be able to operate within the constructs of US foreign policy,” said Roza, who noted CrossFit is already in 155 countries. He said while CrossFit is an American company, and in some sense, an extension of American principles and values, convincing Chinese citizens of anything other than the benefits of CrossFit is not part of the plan. “It’s a tough road to hoe because we’re not here to moralise about the way that someone chooses to run their country,” he said. “What we’re really trying to do is impact from the ground up through people and communities.” The fate of CrossFit in China may fall to one man: China’s CrossFit country manager Liang Kong , a former police officer for 15 years, who worked at provincial government level. He quit in 2015 and opened his own “box”, as CrossFit gyms are known, CrossFit Qiatang in Hangzhou. Kong said China’s push to get healthy is a “lucky” alignment with CrossFit, and one the country can take full advantage of. When he approached the government to open his gym, they were not only helpful, but encouraging of the endeavour, he said. CrossFit has risen from the ashes after horrible 2020 China’s CrossFit fate will largely fall to local entrepreneurs who see potential in starting a box in areas outside established hubs, and Roza said the first goal is to make sure they can do everything they can to help the locals set up affiliates and carry the company’s brand. However, outsiders still need to make sure they are adhering to Chinese values first and foremost, said Kong. “Respect the culture and ecosystem here in China,” said Kong about what it will take for CrossFit to find success. “Most foreign companies are frustrated about their growth in China at first, like Microsoft, Hilton, due to their mindset of doing the same thing here, like in the US.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Eric Roza (@rozaeric) Roza, who said he will be tapping some of the minds at Berkshire Partners who have experience working in China , has also tasked one man with an equally daunting challenge: growing CrossFit globally in the never-ending wake of a pandemic. Gary Gaines signed on as the general manager of international and said he has hit the ground running. Much like Roza, Gaines has a proven track record of success, having worked for large American companies embracing technology and progressive ideals. He previously worked at Tesla, ride-sharing company Lyft, and came to CrossFit from SoulCycle. Gaines said there are four emerging, untapped markets they are looking to target outside CrossFit’s international hubs such as Australia, Iceland and throughout Europe, plus fast growing countries like Brazil. China, India, Japan and Russia are atop his to-do list, and Gaines, who has been doing CrossFit since 2008, added China may be the most challenging of those four. “You can’t operate in China like you do in the United States,” said Gaines. “It just doesn’t work. You can’t even do that in Canada, and companies often do that thinking Canada is an extension of the US.” How CrossFitter Kari Pearce puts her amazing abs to work Gaines said the idea is to follow Kong’s lead, and the other CrossFit China employees, while doing everything they can to leverage the local scene and let them come to Gaines and CrossFit Inc. with the proposed direction. He said government and regulatory hurdles are something they will be deferring to sources to help overcome. “Because we are not experts in navigating that in China,” he said. “So we’ve got to be open-minded about all of this, and Eric is.” Roza has a goal of 20,000 boxes in China as a long-term plan over the next two decades, and said he is confident they can succeed, providing they tackle the nation properly and leverage the push towards fitness, which comes straight from Xi himself. “The more a country is culturally different from the US, and that includes government policies and social aspects, the more challenging it is going to be,” he said. “But what I have found is there is going to be a tipping point and a spark that is lit in a number of these markets that is going to make them take off.” CrossFit’s first Asian success story is right here in Hong Kong. Ant Haynes, a former Hong Kong national rugby team player, burst onto the scene and came 27th at the 2019 CrossFit Games. The 31-year-old benefited immensely from CrossFit’s new qualifying structure for the Games, in which the company crowned more than 100 country champions and did away with Regionals in a bid to spread the sport globally. The crowning of country champions, in Asia in particular, did not come without controversy. Haynes competed under the Chinese flag, along with female Taiwanese CrossFitter Ruei Hung Tsai-jui . Beijing is in the process of seizing full control of Hong Kong, a special administrative region, which was rocked by pro-democracy protests in 2019, while it is in heightened dispute with Taiwan, a self-ruled autonomous island which China still claims ownership over. When CrossFit athlete Bobo Chen Aichan beat Hung to claim the country champion title for this year via the 2020 CrossFit Open, she accused Hung of refusing to hold the Chinese flag during the 2019 CrossFit Games opening ceremony as a political move. Hung denied this in an interview with the Post, saying: “The Games organiser already assigned Ant (Haynes) to hold the flag with his name on the list, and they had never requested me to hold it so where did I get the chance to refuse the opportunity? I have no idea where she got the story from.” CrossFit to kick-start 2021 season with virtual Open in March The primary target of CrossFit in China has to be the country’s burgeoning middle class . Now, even more so, stuck at home due to the coronavirus pandemic, the estimated 550 million citizens are looking for ways to spend money, and expanding their cultural palettes to include much more Western influences. One of the biggest booms within China recently has centred around athletic wear, along with a push towards more healthy living through running, yoga and sports. “Athleisure” as the clothes are called in some circles, saw growth faster than those of luxury goods from 2012 to 2017, and market leaders Nike and Adidas have seen double-digit sales bumps. Along with this is a boom in gyms in China. In 2001, estimates were there were only around 500, now there are an estimated 37,000. Haynes has also found his way into the sportswear space, launching an apparel brand Earned Athletic with his brother and coach, Ed Haynes, along with a third person, Alan Scanlan. The Irishman, who moved to Hong Kong in 2017 and walked into the Haynes’ gym Coastal Fitness looking to get in shape, brought extensive experience working on the mainland with him. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ant Haynes (@anthayneshk) Scanlan’s family company, which is based in Ireland, has long ties to Chinese manufacturers. A network of contacts in places such as Xiamen, a port city on China’s southeast coast, and a deep knowledge of the country’s manufacturing landscape have turned Earned, which specifically targets CrossFitters, into a Hong Kong success story. Scanlan said he thinks Roza is “legit” and could find a way to break into a massively untapped market, if they adhere to Chinese business culture first , which at times can be more focused on personal relationships than financial dealings. “Doing business (in China) is just very, very different,” said Scanlan. “And the thing is, you have to do business the way the Chinese do business, you can’t do things the way they are done in the West. So people need to realise this right away, the communication style is very, very different.” Justin LoFranco, who has run CrossFit blog Morning Chalk Up since 2016, has turned his start-up website into the de facto landing page for the sport . LoFranco, who has travelled to CrossFit events all over the world, including China, said where Glassman’s CrossFit has failed in the past is taking “half-measured” stabs at what is a unique country on multiple fronts. This most likely won’t be the case with Roza, he added. “China is a very different marketplace and the approach will have to be unique to a different economic and social culture. Roza fundamentally understands the multinational landscape of scalable economies, and if he fully commits to growing Chinese CrossFit long-term, there’s nowhere to go but up.”