The 2023 NOBULL CrossFit Open announcement in Madrid, Spain almost went off without a hitch until Laura Horvath and Gabriela Migala’s barbells were loaded to the wrong weight, making their scores invalid. 

The workout (a repeat from 2014): Complete as many reps as possible in 14 minutes of: iron weight plate

The news was first reported by Mike Halpin, a CrossFit analyst, who shared on his Instagram story a photo of the preloaded women’s barbell with a breakdown of the weights.

“That’s not 95# for Laura and Gabi regardless of Kg to Lb conversions,” Halpin wrote in his post. 

He went on to explain that the bar is clearly a 15 kg Rogue barbell loaded with 10 kg Rogue plates and 1.5 kg change plates. This would mean the total was 38 kg or 83 pounds—more than 10 pounds less than the prescribed women’s weight. 

CrossFit released the following statement concerning the incident:

How the workout went down: Prior to the realization that the barbells had been misloaded, it appeared as though Horvath had bested Sam Briggs’ top time in the world from 2014. 

The bottom line: The incident in Madrid is not only an embarrassing start to the 2023 season, but also disheartening to the athletes, who were not responsible for loading their own barbells. 

Last week, Migala told the Morning Chalk Up that her plan was to do each Open workout just once, so she could focus on training as normal through these three weeks for her much bigger goals this season. 

But it appears that something completely out of her control, something she could never have prepared for and that is in no way her responsibility, means she will be attempting 23.1 one more time before the deadline. 

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