James Sprague Defended the CrossFit Games by Twenty-Seven Points and Aimee Cringle Won the Women's Title by a Hundred and Thirty-Six
The twentieth edition went back to California in July and paid out roughly 2.55 million dollars. CrossFit Whip caught CrossFit Mayhem on the final day of the team competition.
James Sprague defended his CrossFit Games title by twenty-seven points and Aimee Cringle won the women's by a hundred and thirty-six. The twentieth edition ran from 22 to 26 July 2026 at the SAP Center in San Jose, a deliberate return to California for the anniversary.
The podiums
| Division | Champion | Points | 2nd | 3rd |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Men's individual | James Sprague | 1,318 | Dallin Pepper 1,291 | Jay Crouch 1,228 |
| Women's individual | Aimee Cringle | 1,394 | Emma Lawson 1,258 | Lucy Campbell 1,229 |
| Team | CrossFit Whip | 1,055 | CrossFit Mayhem 1,030 | - |
Cringle carried a hundred-point cushion into the final event. Sprague did not - twenty-seven points over Pepper is inside a single event's swing. CrossFit Whip overtook Mayhem, who had led for most of the week, on the final day.
The format changes
Quarterfinals were restored after being removed in 2025, and the qualification threshold widened: the top 25 per cent from the Open advanced, against the top 10 per cent in 2024. Roughly 254,000 athletes registered for the Open, an 8.1 per cent rise on 2025. The finals field was thirty men, thirty women and twenty teams, with individuals completing twenty events across four days and teams twelve.
The money
| Place | Individual payout |
|---|---|
| 1st | $311,995 |
| 2nd | $62,399 |
| 5th | $21,840 |
| 10th | $12,480 |
| 21st + | $0 |
The total season purse was around $2,546,900. The team champions took $76,407, and all twenty finals teams were paid, down to $1,273 for twentieth. The gap between first and second - roughly five to one - is unusually steep for a professional sport and is a large part of why the individual leaderboard is contested so hard on the final day.
Tia-Clair Toomey did not compete, for a second consecutive year.
Where it sits on Playdash
Playdash does not price functional-fitness racing. This is editorial coverage of the competitive-sport calendar rather than a market preview.
Results, format, participation and payout figures as published by Wikipedia's 2026 CrossFit Games page, Fitness Volt, Velites Sport and The Barbell Spin. Reports of a dispute over published team-placement payouts were seen but not read in full and no detail is stated here. 2027 dates and venue have not been published. Correct at the time of writing on 28 August 2026.