Josh Golden 13.2

After my last post, I heard about the story of Josh Golden. He posted a score in this WOD of 387, which put him in a three-way tie for first. Awesome, right?

But a controversy arose when a video of this performance was spotted on YouTube, clearly showing him snatching his first rep on the shoulder to overhead, and not opening his hips all the way on a lot of the box jumps. (Granted, the bent-over guy doing box steps behind him was far worse.)

CrossFitters went mental, and CrossFit HQ announced it was rejecting his WOD, thus disqualifying him from eligibility for the Regionals. His affiliate is disallowed from validating scores, so all their CrossFitters will have to continue in the Open via video submission or at other affiliates.
When I first saw the video, I wasn't outraged.  The guy would have finished way ahead of me in this WOD even had he met the standards and stopped to eat a stack of pancakes halfway through.  But some CrossFitters take this stuff more seriously than me. 

Then I read  an interview with Josh Golden (copied at the end of this post).  I have to say that I think he (and the sympathetic interviewer) make a few valid points.

Josh Golden: I’m not trying to cheat anybody or trying to take any spot in Regionals. I’m sorry if I offended anybody by just posting some score without really taking into consideration the rest of the community.


I am disappointed in the community for judging me without seeking any information first. The community is supposed to be so supportive of each other and is supposed to be caring.

I feel I am a great coach, a positive member of the community. I do countless outreaches and help the Boys and Girls Clubs. I’m a good athlete, and a good person and for people to sit there on their computers and rant a rave about what a douche bag I am, or whatever I am, is very disappointing.

The stuff about how the CrossFit community is reacting made me think a bit about how CrossFit is evolving. As it grows in popularity and the focus is on competition, is it losing a bit of its soul?
To a lot of people -- me included -- the thing that makes CrossFit so special is the way people support each other, and the fact that you don't have to be the best athlete. The fact that you're doing it is awesome. How many times have you heard the loudest cheers reserved for the last person to finish the WOD?

Sure, Golden isn't that guy, and probably never has been. He calls himself one of the best athletes in the world. Still, I feel a little bad for a guy who claims he's not a cheater -- merely ignorant -- and is having all kinds of people rip him a new one online.  People are dicks.  People sitting at their keyboards are worse.  I suppose it's naive of me to hope that CrossFitters would be exempt from that basic truth. 
Obviously, as a coach, and as someone who was trying to qualify for regionals (unlike, say, me) Josh Golden should have ensured he was very aware of the standards. The person judging him, even moreso.
But if you were going to blatantly try to cheat the system, you'd probably want to make sure no one was videotaping you, especially when the system allows for submissions that are not validated by video. I sincerely doubt that Golden is the only one in the world who submitted a score based on movements that were substandard. Is he the only one in the top 50? It's possible, but I think it's unlikely.
I think it would have been a better solution for HQ to offer to have Golden re-do the WOD in front of a judge of their choosing and submit that score, even if it was after the deadline. In the interest of maintaining the integrity of their competion and setting an example, I guess I understand why they wouldn't do that. Logistically, it's a lot easier to DQ someone than give them a do-over. What if all these videos come out of the woodwork of top scores where Mikko or Froning or Annie doesn't lock out their hips?

It will be interesting to see if this results in more videos of top contenders doing the Open WODs or fewer.



INTERVIEW WITH JOSH GOLDEN (from www.bilderz.com)

1. As you know the games website comment section was buzzing with negative posts regarding your 13.2 score. How did you learn about the negative posts?

Josh: People called me and told me people were talking about it negatively.

2. Your score posted to the games website was validated at an affiliate, and that validation did not include a video submission correct?

Josh: True, correct.


3. There was a video posted on YouTube of you performing WOD 13.2. Was that video of the WOD that your 387 score was based on?

Josh: Yes, it was
4. Why was the video removed from YouTube?

Josh: I didn’t post the video myself, it was another person and she wasn’t happy with all the negative feedback that was coming from the video. So she decided to take it off. She basically felt bad that it was getting all this negative feedback and she didn’t like reading it all.


5. The buzz online was that a bunch of your shoulders to overhead didn’t count and that your box jumps should have been no repped each time. What do you have to say about that?
Josh: Um, I do agree on the shoulder to overheads, on that one workout, because I didn’t review the standards and I was led to believe that I was able to clean grip snatch the first rep. I was going further below my chin, pretty much close to my shoulders but the video was from the ground up so it made it look every movement look worse than it was.
As far as the box jumps, I felt that I didn’t have anyone telling me they were not correct. The knees are pretty locked out, and my hips are pretty straight, but I was slightly hunched over.

I don’t know they weren’t far off some of the bad reps that I’ve been seeing. I had done the workout earlier in the week and got a 380 on video and it was much cleaner. I was just trying some new ideas on how to get a higher score and this is the result.

6. Today you learned from HQ that you were being disqualified from competing in the 2013 Reebok CrossFit Games Open, Individual Event. How were you notified?

Josh: Through an E-Mail
7. What did they base their disqualification on?

Josh: They said that a few times I went straight from the ground to overhead without making contact with my shoulders. Then some of the box jumps I did, did not show control at the top. They never said anything about being locked out, they said control at the top.
8. If you did not submit a video for validation, what were they basing their analysis on?

Josh: They got wind of the (YouTube) video, so they are basing their analysis on the video. If I hadn’t submitted a video (On YouTube) I would have gotten the score and I would have gotten to compete.

9. Do you think you deserved a better chance to explain your side to HQ before the disqualification?

Josh: Uh, yes. I feel like I should have had a chance to do something. You know as much as CrossFit claims to be a non-corporate thing, they are completely. They didn’t hear my side or anything. They said our job is to review movement standards and your standards were off, good luck training.

So I had no chance to do anything. I offered to do it in front of a judge, I offered to do it against anyone in the world, I offered to do anything.


Obviously I’m one of the better athletes in the Region, if not the world. They didn’t even think twice about it. I think they are trying to set an example.

10. Do you think you were treated fairly?

Josh: No, the thing that makes me most upset is that I don’t think I’m being treated fairly by the CrossFit community. First of all I think HQ is reacting on the community response and their covering themselves by doing this disqualification without any type of human interaction of any kind.

The community is completely unfair to me and I’m really hurt by it. I did not try to steal anyone’s spot or cheat the system. I’m being honest with what is happening and I’m not trying to hurt or take anything away from anybody. I’m a good athlete; I’m a solid athlete. I could do that workout and get a top ten spot with little effort in front of a judge, given a chance.

I posted a video of my first workout 13.1, I post videos of all of my workouts (To YouTube). I’m an honest competitor; I was just an ignorant competitor in this case.

11. How do you think this incident will affect your future with CrossFit and the games in general?

Josh: Well I mean, it’s been emotional, such negativity you know. No matter what happens, I’ll probably be called a cheater forever and this has nothing to do with cheating.

You know it hurt me, in a negative way. I don’t deserve this given my history and background with the sport.

12. Do you have any comments on the overall judging system in the Open?

Josh: Oh man, yes I do. I do not see how HQ can sit there and tell me that they are just trying to uphold a standard by disqualifying me, when there are no videos of the top scores being posted in the whole world.

Why is that happening? Is it because people don’t have a cell phone with a recorder on it? They don’t want people to see what they are doing? Or is it there’s an issue with the judging? I’ve had countless people tell me that in their box they’ve seen way worse form. I’m not judging anyone, but there is no standard if everything is not the same.

Me being disqualified for actually being open with what I’m doing and putting it out there for the world, as the number one competitor for that workout supposedly, what does that say about me?

Does that make me somebody without integrity or does that make me someone with more integrity than all the other people posting their scores (Without videos)? I don’t know, there is no standard as far as I’m concerned.

13 . Would you like to add anything else that you didn’t say already?

Josh: I’m not trying to cheat anybody or trying to take any spot in Regionals. I’m sorry if I offended anybody by just posting some score without really taking into consideration the rest of the community.

I am disappointed in the community for judging me without seeking any information first. The community is supposed to be so supportive of each other and is supposed to be caring.

I feel I am a great coach, a positive member of the community. I do countless outreaches and help the Boys and Girls Clubs. I’m a good athlete, and a good person and for people to sit there on their computers and rant a rave about what a douche bag I am, or whatever I am, is very disappointing.