Bound Newsletter 1.25.2026
Then vs. Now: How CrossFit Games Athletes Have Evolved (2009–2012 to Today)
By a CrossFit Games athlete who competed in the 2009–2012 era
I’m often asked a version of the same question: “Were the CrossFit Games harder back then, or are they harder now?” The honest answer is: yes.
The sport has changed dramatically. The athletes have changed. The training has changed. But the thing that made the best athletes great in 2009 is still what separates them today.
I competed during a period where the Games were still defining themselves in real time. We didn’t have decades of film study, cleanly established “meta” strategies, or a roadmap for how to peak. You showed up with a huge engine, a thick skin, and a willingness to do whatever showed up on the board.
Fast forward to now: the Games is a refined, global sport with full-time professionals, sports science, specialized coaches, and athletes who’ve been preparing since their teen years.
So what’s different—and what’s the same?
What a “Games Athlete” Looked Like in 2009–2012
In the early era, the average Games athlete was often built from one of two places:
A strong background in something else
Think wrestlers, football players, strength athletes, endurance athletes, gymnasts—people who found CrossFit and realized it rewarded versatility.The ultimate generalist
Athletes who weren’t world-class in one thing, but had no real weaknesses and could suffer longer than anyone else.
Back then, training was simpler—sometimes brutally so. The best athletes were those who could handle high volume, recover quickly, and stay mentally stable when workouts got weird.
The early Games “edge”
Grit and resilience
Work capacity across unknown tasks
A willingness to attack weaknesses without overthinking
Basic strength and gymnastics competency (relative to the time)
What a “Games Athlete” Looks Like Now
Today’s Games athlete is closer to a true hybrid professional: equal parts strength athlete, endurance athlete, gymnast, and tactician.
The sport now rewards not just capacity, but precision:
Efficient movement
Clean transitions
Smart pacing
Event-to-event strategy
Recovery protocols and consistency
The top tier athletes aren’t just “tough.” They’re engineered—by years of exposure, coaching, and deliberate development.
The modern Games “edge”
Elite strength + elite conditioning together (not one or the other)
Highly refined skills (gymnastics, barbell cycling, odd objects)
Tactical racing and pacing
Consistency under the pressure of a long season
How Male CrossFit Games Athletes Have Changed
Then (2009–2012)
Men were often more “raw power + engine.” You’d see athletes who were extremely strong or extremely fit—and the best guys were the ones who could blend the two without falling apart.
Common strengths:
Heavy lifting and pulling
Short-to-mid conditioning
Basic gymnastics (often good, but not always “clean”)
Weaknesses were more common. You could be top-10 with a noticeable gap—like being a great lifter who struggled with long endurance, or a great runner who couldn’t keep up under heavy loads.
Now
Men at the top are frighteningly complete. The baseline is higher in every category:
Stronger absolute lifting
Faster barbell cycling
More advanced gymnastics under fatigue
Better endurance across longer time domains
You rarely see a modern top athlete with a “hole” big enough to hide in. The sport has punished weaknesses long enough that the best men are almost smoothly competitive at everything.
How Female CrossFit Games Athletes Have Changed
Then (2009–2012)
The women’s field was impressive, but the depth wasn’t what it is now. A handful of athletes were far ahead of the pack in strength, capacity, or skill, and that gap could hold for multiple seasons.
Common strengths:
Toughness and pacing over suffering workouts
Strong gymnastics foundations for many
Growing strength numbers year to year
But the average athlete didn’t always have access to the same developmental systems we see today—full-time coaching, sport-specific programming, and deeper talent pipelines.
Now
The modern women’s field is one of the clearest examples of evolution in the sport.
Today’s top women are:
Stronger across the board (especially Olympic lifting and squatting)
Faster in mixed-modal workouts
More skilled in high-level gymnastics movements
More confident with odd objects and heavy implements
And just like on the men’s side, the depth has exploded. There are far more women who can realistically contend, and far fewer events where someone can “get away with” a weakness.
The Biggest Shift: Depth and Specialization
If you want the simplest summary, it’s this:
Back then, the best athletes were tough generalists.
Now, the best athletes are tough generalists… with specialist-level tools.
Training evolved into a system:
Separate strength cycles
Dedicated aerobic development
Skill refinement sessions
Competitive simulation
Recovery protocols that actually work
And with film, data, and years of programming patterns, athletes now prepare with far more accuracy.
But Here’s What Hasn’t Changed: The Common Themes That Still Win
Even with all the evolution, I’d argue the most important qualities of a great CrossFit athlete haven’t changed at all.
1) The best athletes own their weaknesses
In 2009, we didn’t call it “weakness work.” We just knew that if something beat you, you had to face it.
That hasn’t changed. The names and systems are different, but the principle is the same:
Whatever you avoid will eventually decide your placing.
2) The sport still rewards consistency more than perfection
You don’t win the Games by being the best at one event.
You win by being:
hard to beat,
hard to rattle,
and consistently near the front.
Then and now, champions are the ones who can string together solid finishes all week.
3) Mental toughness is still the separator
People think “mental toughness” means yelling and suffering.
Real mental toughness is quieter:
staying calm when something unexpected shows up,
sticking to your plan,
making smart decisions under fatigue,
and competing like you belong there.
That was true in the early Games. It’s even more true now.
4) Fundamentals still matter more than trends
The movements got more complex, but the sport still revolves around:
squatting,
hinging,
pressing,
pulling,
running,
rowing,
jumping,
and moving well under fatigue.
If you want to be better—whether you’re chasing the Games or chasing a healthier life—master the basics and repeat them for years.
What This Means for the Rest of Us
Most people reading this aren’t trying to win the CrossFit Games.
But you are trying to win something:
better health,
more confidence,
a stronger body,
the ability to show up for your family,
and the discipline to keep promises to yourself.
And that’s where the biggest lesson from 2009 to now applies:
The athletes changed. The sport evolved, but the path is still the same: do the work, consistently, for a long time.
In every era, the athletes who rise are the ones who:
train with intention,
stay humble,
respect the process,
and keep showing up.
That was true when we were competing in 2009–2012.
It’s true today.
And it’ll be true long after the next evolution arrives.
Here’s 4 of the top Male CF athletes completing a test that was created back in 2010 by a friend of mine Rudy Nelson of Outlaw Strength (CrossFit Outlaw) or the Outlaw Way
Bragging Board:
Miguel Chavez hit a 195lb Overhead Squat (+20lb PR)
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CrossFit Journal Article of the Week: “Back Squats Are Not the Enemy”
By Stephane Rochete, CFL3
I have to applaud Andrew Hiller for his response to and balanced criticism of Peter Attia’s recent podcast on training for longevity with Mike Boyle, Gabrielle Lyon, and Jeff Cavaliere. Hiller did an especially good job addressing the discussion in which Mike Boyle recommended replacing back squats with single-leg lower-body movements, such as split squats and lunge variations, because back squats are a source of back pain for many trainees. I agree with Hiller that such statements are not innocuous and can lead people to make decisions that will negatively impact their health and fitness.
Everybody Should Squat
In CrossFit, the air squat is the foundational movement. The functionality of the air squat is obvious anywhere we need to raise our center of gravity from a seated to a standing position — getting off the toilet, out of the car, or off the couch. Anyone who cannot air squat with the full range of motion is functioning at a fraction of their athletic capacity. The air squat is also the foundational skill and gateway movement to back squats, front squats, and overhead squats. We insist our clients squat correctly, and we know from years of experience that their difficulty in squatting exactly describes their need.
In our daily efforts to build work capacity, we need to learn, refine, and master all types of squats, including air squats, plate squats, goblet squats, back squats, front squats, overhead squats, single-leg squats, split-squat variations, lunge variations, and step-up variations. We want all of these movements to consistently rotate through our programming so we can practice them and develop and maintain full ranges of motion.
Over time, when the opportunity arises, we want to increase the weight to increase our capacity. This needs to be done judiciously, however, because it is often during our pursuit of benchmarks such as a 200-, 300-, 400-, or 500-lb squat that technique and range of motion degrade, leading to the knee or back pain blamed on squats instead of correctly attributed to the poor decisions and application of the coach and lifter.
The CrossFit mindset holds that, rather than abandoning back squats when we feel back or knee pain, we review exactly what we are doing and determine what needs to be fixed or scaled. Squats are an orthopedically sound way to move when done correctly; if we’re feeling pain, we’re most likely doing something wrong. This is a great time to lighten the load and practice, practice, practice. There is a significant benefit to attempting to squat perfectly with lighter loads — far more than omitting squats entirely and relying on single-leg movements. We don’t toss critical functional movements. We hold on to them. We have no problem scaling them down to PVC pipe and moving them to warm-ups, cool-downs, and practice sessions, but we don’t abandon them. Quitting two-legged squatting entirely would be a huge blow to our overall capacity.
As we reduce loading on squats to practice and refine technique, it is a good time to make sure we are following a suitably broad fitness program. Are we doing the presses, deadlifts, calisthenics, Olympic lifts, varied conditioning methods, and core work to provide the overall structural development and fitness to support the type of squatting we’re doing? As Hiller noted, maybe back pain from back squats comes when we don’t deadlift and lack the back strength to support the loads we want to squat.
To be fair to Boyle, most of his career has been spent coaching high-level collegiate and professional athletes. For these athletes, there might be a time, especially in-season, when any movement that causes pain and negatively impacts competition performance needs to be removed from the program. Although I might manipulate load and range of motion to see if I could find a non-provocative version as a new baseline to build from. If the movement is replaced altogether, this should not be a permanent decision. Once the athlete’s competition season is over, a priority should be to reintroduce the movement at loads and ranges of motion that cause no pain and progress from there. This long-term view for (re)building capacity is critical for a long career and peak performance.
As athletes, we need to understand our own strengths and weaknesses in the weight room. All athletes should do all types of squats regularly, but this does not mean their movement patterns or loading parameters will be the same.
For example, a tall, lanky athlete and a stouter, shorter athlete will both benefit greatly from including back squats in their program. Both need to strive to master the points of performance and nuanced technical elements of the squat, including moving through a full range of motion. However, the shorter lifter, most likely displaying a more classical squat pattern, will probably move more load than the taller athlete. For the taller lifter to sacrifice technique and range of motion to match the loads of his shorter counterpart is a recipe for back or knee pain. Again, the error is in the application, not the movement itself.
During over 20 years of coaching, I have seen world-champion sprinters back squat over double bodyweight for explosive pause reps, world-record throwers cut their back squat loads in half and set new records, and thousands of athletes use infinite set, rep, and loading schemes in the back squat to increase power and speed, gain muscle, and overcome injuries. None of these athletes had time for, or would have tolerated, back pain that affected performance — they squatted to improve performance. When properly applied, back squats are a tremendous tool in our fitness arsenal.
Think For Yourself
I hope Hiller’s arguments and the points made here will help anyone pondering how to proceed with their health and fitness program use critical thinking rather than being swayed by experts making blanket statements and overreacting. Listen to what others say, but realize they know nothing about your situation. Only you and your coach can decide what the best approach is for achieving your goals. When it comes to squats specifically for health and fitness, our recommendation is to squat more, more often.
