CrossFit Inc. chief executive officer Greg Glassman is stepping down after his tweets on the George Floyd protests and COVID-19 sparked ire from consumers.
"I created a rift in the CrossFit community and unintentionally hurt many of its members," Glassman said in a statement late Tuesday. Dave Castro was named as new CEO.
In a reply to an Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation tweet calling racism a critical public health issue, Glassman commented on Saturday, "It's FLOYD-19," from his personal Twitter account.
CrossFit is a brand of fitness regimen that incorporates weightlifting and aerobic exercise and has spawned at least 15,000 affiliate gyms worldwide. Its vast appeal and popularity was so widespread that the company created the CrossFit Games in 2007, an annual televised competition where athletes compete for more than $2.3 million in prize money.
Adidas AG sportswear brand Reebok, which had overhauled its offerings in recent years to position itself as the key athletic wear company targeting those athletes, earlier said it would end its partnership with CrossFit, citing the tweets.
