Kara Saunders on Why Women are Leaving the Individual Competition 

I might be lucky to be the first to post here, but I'd love to say how refreshing it is to hear Kara speak to this. In this interview, she covered what it must be like to be an elite female in the sport. Watching a younger generation come in and what it might feel like for others there. An honest “hey, someone else went team? Sure, now I feel like I can do that too!.” Kara is an unsung gem in the sport. High Five from London!

She is definitely spot on with the lack of consistency and professionalism of the sport, very few athletes have been able to make a living but have sacrificed so much to be at the top. Lots of respect for Kara.

Kara is the best! So down to earth and such a great athlete. We would also be so hype if you went individual again Kara!!

Great conversation with Kara! I love hearing healthy women sharing their experience. Lauren always crushes it!

Great interview - terrific insights from a seasoned pro!

Love Kara and hearing from her! What an inspiring athlete mama too(her son was so cute!)

Maybe putting some priority into Teams divisions for the younger athletes would give them that sense of family for the ones that leave home for training camps. Even seeing all Male or all Female teams would make for good content for the spectators and would give the athletes that team sport environment they’ve lost due to CrossFit being so heavily into the individual competition. Could always change the age for individual to 21 and use the 18-20 for teams

I think too in the back of a lot of women's minds if they want to have kids is the gamble of what can happen with pregnancy. Even if you do everything correctly things can still go very sideways, not to mention there is more expected of mothers in terms of raising the kids. So if you only have your twenties before your life kinda gets turned on its head then there's a lot more pressure to decide what to do with that time. We have to decide if we really want to spend it training for a sport, or if missing out on life only to dive straight into motherhood is worth it? Or maybe there are other things they want to accomplish in that short time. Like becoming a dad is kinda the same but not the physical toll and potential risks.

Expect Crossfit to suffer at the games level with regard to GenZ and the next generation behind them because they will never want to put the same level of commitment that peaked with the Tia Toomey era.