CrossFit expands adaptive Games pathway for 2026 season
Adaptive athletes will chase Games spots through the Open and WheelWOD semifinals before San Jose hosts the division July 24-26, 2026.
San Jose will host the Adaptive CrossFit Games by WheelWOD from July 24-26, the next stop in a qualification path that now runs through the Open and a separate semifinal stage. CrossFit's 2026 season marks its 20th CrossFit Games, with multiple divisions built around seated classifications as well as neurological and vision impairments.
The route is distinct from the mainstream individual field. Any athlete who wants to reach the CrossFit Games must start with the Open, and the top athletes from the Adaptive Open advance to the Adaptive CrossFit Online Semifinals by WheelWOD, which run May 14-17, 2026.
CrossFit's classification model is built around the 10 eligible impairments identified by the International Paralympic Committee, and its decisions rely on scientific data and community feedback. CrossFit updated its adaptive policy after complaints about unfair division placement and accusations of intentional misrepresentation of impairments, and it put eligibility review in the hands of a five-expert Adaptive Competition Eligibility Board that included three physicians.
CrossFit introduced 16 adaptive athlete divisions in the 2021 Open, and nearly 1,000 athletes from around the world competed in those brackets. That same year brought the first-ever adaptive competition at the Games, with men’s and women’s Upper Extremity, Lower Extremity and Neuromuscular divisions. By 2023, the top 10 adaptive athletes in Multi-Extremity, Lower-Extremity and Upper-Extremity advanced straight to the Games, while Vision, Intellectual, Short Stature, Seated With Hip and Seated Without Hip were crowned within their own divisions.
The 2023 Open closed with 322,000 registered athletes across individual, age-group and adaptive divisions. The Games then moved in 2024 to San Antonio, Texas, where the Adaptive CrossFit Games by WheelWOD were staged Sept. 19-22 at Morgan’s Wonderland and the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center. WheelWOD now gives the division its own competition infrastructure and official event pathway heading into San Jose.
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