Who Will Sign Contracts with World Fitness Project?

Over the weekend the World Fitness Project began announcing athletes who have signed contracts with the new fitness league. Chandler Smith, Alex Gazan, Brooke Wells and Pat Vellner have officially been confirmed as “Pro” athletes in the inaugural season.

But who else can we expect to sign a contract with the WFP?

Before I get to that, a little background is in order…

The WFP is signing 20 men and 20 women to Pro contracts. These athletes will reportedly sign contracts worth 5-6 digits (i.e. up to $100,000 or so). They will compete at the three WFP competitions throughout the year and will be joined by 10 “Challenger” athletes at each event.

In a recent story by Brooke Wells, one of the confirmed athletes, she said that the signed athletes are “essentially the top 20 women / 20 men in the world.”

I have also heard that no one who the WFP approached declined participation.

And that makes sense since these Pro athletes will be guaranteed some amount of money to compete three times during 2025 and the contracts are not exclusionary, meaning they could also compete in the 2025 CrossFit Games season.

So if the top 20-ish athletes in the world are competing, how could that be defined?

CrossFit’s worldwide ranking system has not been updated since Semifinals this year so I would not expect that system to be used. Plus, for an organization not affiliated with CrossFit, and to some extent, being organized as an alternate way to compete it would be highly unlikely the WFP would utilize such as system.

In previous year’s the top 20 at the CrossFit Games would be a good proxy for the top 20 in the world. But with many top athletes withdrawing from the 2024 CrossFit Games, that would not work either.

There’s also Barclay Dale’s ranking system. And while it is probably the most comprehensive database and a good representation of the top 20 based on historical performance, it has not been used by any competitions or in any capacity other than an interesting look at rankings. So I don’t see the WFP using this (yet). No offense, Barclay.

And so that leads me to the only other ranking system that has been used for a competition. That is the Rogue Invitational Qualifying System. It’s a multi-year system that has utilized performances from the CrossFit Games, Rogue Invitational, CrossFit Open and CrossFit Quarterfinals. All of the athletes swoon over the Rogue Invitational and, for the most part, is a good representation of the top athletes in the world.

The only downside is that newer athletes don’t have enough “history” to earn enough points to be ranked high enough. 

But, I do think this is the most likely system that the WFP would use to extend invites to join the league. 

So who would that be?

Rogue Invitational Qualifying System Rankings

Men

Jeff Adler
Pat Vellner (confirmed)
Justin Medeiros
Ricky Garard
Dallin Pepper
Jayson Hopper
Roman Khrennikov
Jay Crouch
Bjorgvin Karl Gudmundsson
Noah Ohlsen
Chandler Smith (confirmed)
Sam Kwant
Jonne Koski
Saxon Panchik
Travis Mayer
Gui Malheiros
James Sprague
Sam Cournoyer
Henrik Haapalainen (injured)
Jelle Hoste
Luka Ðukić

You’ll notice this list no longer includes Brent Fikowski. While athletes like Mal O’Brien are removed when they retire, it’s interesting that Fikowski has already been removed based on his statement that he is retiring. I would have expected him to remain on the “active” list until he didn’t register to compete.

I could see all of these athletes being invited with the exception of Henrik Haapalainen. Not because he isn’t fit, but because he will be unable to compete after rupturing his Achilles tendon while competing at the 2024 Rogue Invitational.

So who would replace him? Cole Sager and Cole Greashaber are #21 and #22, respectively. But what about another top athlete who has already said he will not compete in the 2025 CrossFit Games season?

Yes, I expect Luka Ðukić to be on the list of athletes who are signed to the WFP.

Women

Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr
Laura Horvath
Gabi Migala (injured)
Danielle Brandon
Arielle Loewen
Emma Lawson
Alex Gazan (confirmed)
Annie Thorisdottir (retired?)
Brooke Wells (confirmed)
Alexis Raptis
Emily Rolfe
Emma Tall
Amanda Barnhart
Paige Semenza
Emma McQuaid
Haley Adams
Manon Angonese
Dani Speegle
Emma Cary (not competing?)
Karin Freyova
Maddie Sturt
Bethany Flores
Sydney Wells

The women’s top 20 has a few more unknowns. Like Haapalainen I would expect Gabi Migala to not receive an invite, only because of her injury. But what about Annie Thorisdottir? Is she done competing? And what about Emma Cary? Neither Thorisdottir nor Cary have been removed from the rankings like Brent Fikowski or Katrin Davidsdottir.

I’m going to predict that Thorisdottir and Cary are not competing, which would leave three unfilled spots.

I could see the WFP going down to #21 and #22 and inviting Maddie Sturt and Bethany Flores. 

So who gets the final invite? I’m going to go out on a limb and say Sydney Wells. We know Brooke Wells and Will Moorad are good friends and even have somewhat of an athlete/coach relationship. Could that relationship mean that twin sister Sydney gets an invite even though she is ranked #44 on Rogue’s rankings? I’m going to predict…yes.

There you have it. These are my predictions on who will be signing contracts with the WFP. As you can see up and coming athletes like Austin Hatfield, Gracie Walton, Aimee Cringle and others are not on the list. It’s the one downside to Rogue’s rankings. But at the same time those in the top 20 have shown their ability to perform at a high level consistently over the years.

Do you agree with my predictions?

I guess we will find out how accurate I am over the coming days…