“The Crown,” The Progrm’s extremely unique annual teen competitors, simply wrapped up after its fourth run on the Nike Fort in Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
A choose handful of minor athletes from across the globe threw down. The occasion has advanced through the years, with the 2025 iteration proving to be distinctive.
Remind Me
Final fall, we spoke with John Singleton, The Progrm’s founder and occasion organizer, concerning the upcoming season.
- He shared with us that The Crown is a ardour undertaking, and he and his workforce hope to develop it whereas making certain its sustainability.
The occasion has turn out to be a extremely sought-after alternative for elite teen athletes — an invitational competitors, a camp, and a core-memory-making expertise all rolled into one weekend. Solely 5 boys and 5 women are chosen to take part. Whereas Singleton and his workforce try to ship a world-class competitors, he additionally goals to create an environment the place they will bond, assist each other, and construct lasting relationships.
Singleton is grateful for the continual assist Nike has offered for the competitors annually.
- “We’ve got an in depth relationship with Nike with that occasion, and we’re trying to develop on that as we transfer into the following 12 months. They share the identical imaginative and prescient concerning the following era,” Singleton advised Morning Chalk Up.
The imaginative and prescient is that teenage athletes want assist and alternatives to develop and enhance collectively. Teen burnout is prevalent in lots of sports activities, and CrossFit is not any exception. Because of the smaller scale of CrossFit, it’s uncommon for teenagers to have the possibility to coach with friends their very own age. Every year, the occasion’s group and planning emphasize methods to construct connections.
- “[It] was actually essential to us [that] these guys go away with friendships; we create the surroundings and step again to allow them to get on,” Singleton advised us in an interview final 12 months. “They’re beneath a lot strain. It’s essential that they’ve connections with children the identical age, with the identical experiences.”
The sentiment continues to ring true.
The 2025 Occasion
Earlier than the competitors even started this 12 months, athletes took half in a scavenger hunt and trivia recreation, culminating of their dive right into a pool to retrieve a water-proof field of swag, together with sneakers, gear, and a key to their locker containing much more items from Nike.
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The exercises included swimming, heavy lifting, gymnastics, and path operating. In a single occasion, athletes had been required to fill wheelbarrows and buckets with sand and transport them from level A to level B — a problem completely suited to the Mallorquin seashore.
On the fourth and closing day, athletes confronted a climbing wall, a problem that no CrossFit competitor has in all probability encountered in competitors.
Singleton mentioned that some milestones had been reached this 12 months, one among which is the inclusion of the area people via the Erg Collection.
Open to anybody wishing to register, the Erg Collection was a contest for groups of two, the place individuals confronted exercises utilizing the Ski Erg, Concept2 Rower, and Assault Bike. The exercises mirrored these accomplished by The Crown individuals.
Group members participated alongside elite athletes like Ella Wunger, Adrian Mundwiler, and Jacqueline Dahlstrom.
This neighborhood part was important to Singleton as a result of he believed it was absent from earlier variations of the occasion.
- “The Crown has all the time been this remoted group that travels across the island and has these cool experiences. However this 12 months, we managed to have the focal occasion on Saturday on the Palma Sport and Tennis Membership. Everybody who loves health on the island got here to the tennis membership, labored out with the athletes, they usually, in essence, did the identical exercise on the ground. So it made it a way more built-in expertise,” Singleton says.
It was additionally essential that the neighborhood occasion remained inclusive and accessible to athletes of all talents.
- “The large factor was now we have an occasion that’s actually open to anybody – no operating, no heavy weights, no advanced actions, and that’s the place we thought, ‘Okay, machines are the right approach to do that.’ We had fathers and sons competing on a workforce, individuals who don’t even actually work out however simply signed up with their mates. I feel it motivated lots of people,” Singleton mentioned.
King and Queen
Ole Bosman from the Netherlands and Tuva Bjerkeli from Norway had been this 12 months’s champions among the many 10 youngsters who competed in Mallorca.
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Each Bosman and Bjerkeli competed within the 16-17 division on the Teenage CrossFit Video games in 2024, with Bosman ending in 18th place and Bjerkeli taking tenth place.
In December, they participated within the IF3 Super Worlds in Budapest, Hungary, the place they received within the 17-18 division.
- “It’s all the time so nice having the ability to see one other era coming via. They’re clearly so proficient; very younger; they convey a contemporary perspective as properly,” Singleton mentioned.
What’s Subsequent?
Whereas Singleton and the workforce are nonetheless reflecting on this 12 months’s occasion, plans are already underway for 2026. The native authorities’s recognition of this 12 months’s occasion has bolstered The Progrm’s efforts. The occasion was awarded the Trophy of Health of Palma, which is important as a result of it represents an out of doors group acknowledging CrossFit and practical health as a sport.
Much like this 12 months, one other Crown Collection will happen, the place younger athletes compete at established occasions. In 2025, the Crown Collection was held on the Madrid Championship and the Iberian Throwdown. In 2026, three competitions are scheduled: the primary will happen from April 25-27 at Wodland Fest, the second will likely be held in Göteborg, Sweden, from August 15-17, and particulars concerning the third will likely be introduced quickly.
The collection will likely be distinct from the invitation-only closing occasion held in Mallorca, which is at present set for Easter weekend in 2026.
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Featured picture: Lydia Stadtheower