CrossFit founder to sell company after George Floyd comments
A tech businessman is buying CrossFit after internal turmoil
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CrossFit founder Greg Glassman is selling the company to tech businessman and gym owner Eric Roza after stepping down as CEO earlier in June because of comments he made about protests in the wake of the death of George Floyd.
Glassman's sale of Crossfit to Roza will close in July when he becomes the new CEO, CrossFit's interim CEO Dave Castro said in a statement. Backlash over Glassman's comments led many gyms to disaffiliate from CrossFit.
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"Eric is one of us," Castro said. "He's a 10-year CrossFit athlete and founder of CrossFit Sanitas in Boulder, Colorado. ... He also knows how to build great, inclusive workplaces[.]"
The news comes days after The New York Times published a story alleging Glassman fostered a sexist workplace culture.
"My view is simple: Racism and sexism are abhorrent and will not be tolerated CrossFit," Roza said in a statement on Wednesday." We open our arms to everyone, and I will be working hard to rebuild bridges with those whose trust we have lost."
Roza was CEO of Datalogix, a digital advertising data company that was acquired by Oracle in 2015, according to his bio.
Glassman said it was time for him to find other "creative outlets" in a farewell statement.
Crossfit Inc. founder and CEO Greg Glassman (R) talks to employees prior to a presentation at the Half street location in Washington, DC on July 31, 2015. (Photo by Linda Davidson / The Washington Post via Getty Images)
“I started a company with some essential and elegant truths that nobody could, or maybe would, tell," Glassman wrote on CrossFit's Twitter account. "It resulted in the fastest growing chain in world history."
Reebok said it would drop its partnership with CrossFit over Glassman's tweets about George Floyd and the coronavirus lockdown, although Glassman has since apologized.
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Glassman got in trouble after responding to a tweet from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, which created the COVID-19 models that helped inform U.S. lockdown policy. The institute had shared its director's statement on racism as a "public health issue."
"It's FLOYD-19," Glassman responded on Saturday, later adding: "Your failed model quarantined us and now you're going to model a solution to racism? George Floyd's brutal murder sparked riots nationally. Quarantine alone is 'accompanied in every age and under all political regimes by an undercurrent of suspicion, distrust, and riots. Thanks!"