Like many things, it started with a tweet.
Back in June the CEO of the multi-million dollar fitness company Crossfit, Greg Glassman, posted a tweet in response to a public health policy think-tank’s reaction to the death of George Floyd:
Glassman owns 100% and is the CEO of a company who advocates a fitness methodology as a “uniquely elegant solution to the greatest problem facing the world today: chronic disease.” Over the years he has been critical of conventional public health policy in the U.S., and in the past few months during the pandemic, has touted wild theories regarding the origins of COVID-19 and lambasted the government’s response to the pandemic.
Yet with a tweet Glassman revealed his ignorance on the intersection of racism and public health. Moreover, he showed that he is ignorant of the significance of why people are protesting and rioting in America.
Greg Glassman’s ignorance invoked large consequences and the backlash within the Crossfit community was swift. Within days, multinational news organisations were picking up on the story, demonstrating how deeply the reverberations of Glassman’s tweet were being felt across what is considered a niche community.
Over the past few days, Crossfit Headquarters has had to deal with what is being demanded to change by the Crossfit community. It would be revealed that beyond the tweet, Greg Glassman’s publicly voiced his staff’s attitudes towards the protests and George Floyd’s murder, namely that they weren’t affected. The fallout from the Tweet and the Zoom call revelations forced a reckoning within the community, with large sections of it demanding that Glassman resign. Scores of well known athletes with huge social media platforms immediately called out Greg Glassman, stating that they did not agree with his tweet, or his stance on the murder of George Floyd. Over a thousand affiliates of Crossfit have disaffiliated from the brand over the past few days. What is more damning, a prominent member of Crossfit HQ staff resigned, alluding that the attitude of Greg Glassman wasn’t restricted to him alone:
“The pain and lived reality of the black community has been mocked, and the sincere hurt, confusion, anxiety & hopelessness that I know many of you feel over current events has been disregarded.”
It took several days for Crossfit HQ to respond to the outrage, until they announced and responded on behalf of Glassman that he was retiring due to the division he had caused with his publicly stated opinion.
Yet it was this tweet that invoked the name of a murdered black man that forced Crossfit HQ to “retire” him. It was also this tweet that ushered forward a rash of allegations from people coming forward over Glassman’s bad behaviour towards women.
The tweet, apparently, is the tip of the iceberg.
As the CEO and the leadership of a company that purportedly exists to transform health, he is responsible for his public opinions and the values he espouses to the wider public. What is more, it should be expected that the leader of a health and fitness system/methodology should engage with and be aware of the wider landscape of societal issues, namely the foundational racism and discrimination present in this country and its effect on public heath from an individual level to a community and societal level. Yet, Greg Glassman and based on the response from Crossfit HQ, are both purposefully ignorant and choose to ignore the intersection of racism and public health and the shared reality disenfranchised communities face every day in America.
The company’s ethos of using their system and methodology as a prescription to fight chronic disease is extremely effective for individuals needing to reshape their health when applied by competent and trained coaches. However, it is no panacea. Crossfit as an organisation which doesn’t comprehend or acknowledge the huge inequities that exist within America means it is only applying band-aids for public health problems that will only get worse, as the inequalities in our society grow.
It’s not an individual Crossfit gym’s job to fix these inequalities single-handedly, nor is it Crossfit HQ’s job: instead, awareness spread from the top down to affiliates could have a massive impact on a gym owner’s understanding of where their clients are coming from and the challenges they face (or not coming from–given how cost prohibitive Crossfit gyms are!).
Ultimately, Crossfit as an organisation is better off without CEO’s like Glassman at the help and it is hopeful that this is not a scandal that will “blow over” for Glassman nor Crossfit HQ. Sometimes words publicly shared by people in positions of power have consequences, it seems, in today’s public sphere.
CLB Collins 