Prizes at CrossFit Games will include Glocks

Glock pistols will be among the prizes awarded at this year's CrossFit Games, and people are losing their mind about it.

Dave Castro, director of the CrossFit Games, served for over a decade with a SOF unit and is an avid shooter. He recently announced the intention to award Glock pistols on social media. Said Castro,

“The top male athlete, the top female athlete, and every member of the winning team will receive a Glock pistol.”

Does this mean Glock is a sponsor of this year's games? That probably depends on your definition of the word sponsor. We're just happy they're involved at all, even if Castro is buying the guns himself and giving them as gifts. The whole thing sounds just great to us, but Change.org and other anti-gun organizations are incensed. What a surprise. Here's an excerpt from one petition asking to cancel the awarding of Glocks as prizes.

“Irrespective of anyone's right to bear arms in the US, branding the value of our community to be about awarding weapons as gifts and rewards is not what our community stands for…CrossFit is for health, fitness and the well being of the all people in all communities. This is not CrossFit. This should never be CrossFit…This damages the reputation of every participant, athlete, and affiliate owner around the globe.”

Instinct Magazine's Adam Dupuis says,

“The CrossFit season ends at the StubHub Center in Carson, California on July 19 – 24, 2016. The world's fittest 40 men, 40 women, 40 teams, 40 teenagers, and 200 masters will attend from all over the world.  I am sure all of these participants are looking forward to winning a GLOCK.”

As of this writing over 17,000 disaffected or disappointed people have signed the petition. The comments below the petition are predictable in their content and appear to be mostly from CrossFitters in other countries. Some are articulate, some far less so. None of them seem likely to change Castro's mind.

RECOIL Chief Editor Iain Harrison and Web Editor David Reeder are still discussing how to word their petition asking that some sort of marksmanship-under-stress competition be worked into the games — you know, like a rope climb followed by some burpees mixed into some timed shoot/don't shoot stages.  We can neither confirm nor deny whether they plan on buying Castro a beer at the Roadrunner in New River, Arizona for coming up with such an utterly brilliant idea.

You can follow the CrossFit Games on Facebook here. You can see a list of all this year's sponsors here.