On April 28, 2026, Bruce Edwards was named CEO of CrossFit, following Don Faul’s resignation on March 6, 2026. Chris Cooper responds below:
Bruce Edwards is the right CEO for CrossFit. I know because he fired me.
In the fall of 2018, I got a call from Bruce. I was on the CrossFit Media team, writing monthly articles for the CrossFit Journal. Greg Glassman had hired me himself in 2014 (we shook on it in the parking lot of the Four Seasons in Seattle). Greg said he was “trying to get the right people on the bus.” Over the next few years, the bus got crowded. He saw flickers of talent in dozens of us and rewarded each one with a job.
Many of us, me included, weren’t pulling our weight. I was barely making deadlines, and the work I was turning in was probably interesting only to me. I wasn’t growing the brand. But the checks kept coming—until Bruce called.
That call ended my tenure with CrossFit. I was more upset to lose my chris@crossfit.com email than anything else (Two-Brain was starting to expand dramatically, and I needed the time back.) But what stuck with me wasn’t the firing. It was that Bruce made the call himself.
There were at least a dozen of us being cut at the same time. Bruce could have delegated the job. He didn’t. He picked up the phone himself and did the hard thing the right way—head-on, with clarity and respect.
That’s the first thing CrossFit needs right now: a CEO who will do the right things in the right way.
He understands the business—because he ran it.
Bruce was COO of CrossFit from 2013 to 2019. Greg was the face. Jeff Cain was CEO for a lot of that time. Bruce was the operator. He’s the one who made the company actually run during the years CrossFit grew from a small brand into 15,000+ affiliates in 158 countries. He helped stand up operations in the UK, Germany, Brazil, Australia and Canada. You might not have heard his name. But if you looked behind Nicole, Dave and your favorite L1 staff members, you’d have seen Bruce there.
In 2026, CrossFit doesn’t need someone who has to learn the business. It needs someone who has already led it through its biggest growth phase—and who has watched what happened since.
He’s sat on our side of the counter.
Bruce was a co-owner of CrossFit Aptos, right in CrossFit’s backyard. He knows what it costs to keep the lights on, fill a 6 a.m. class and pay a coach who’s also a friend. Even when HQ’s message was “Just be the best coach—if you build it, they will come,” Bruce never pretended that was the whole job. He has always been honest about how hard it is to run an actual affiliate.
To me, that’s one of the most important perspectives the CEO can have. Affiliates are the engine of CrossFit. The next CEO will have to make decisions that affect every gym owner who has set aside a career, taken on debt or worked a decade to bring the method to their community. You want those decisions made by someone who has stood at a whiteboard on a Saturday morning.
He’s evolved brands since—not just CrossFit ones.
If you only knew Bruce from his CrossFit years, you might think he’d try to rebuild what CrossFit used to be. That would sell him short.
After CrossFit, Bruce became Chief Growth Officer at In-Shape Health Clubs (65 full-service clubs in California). He served as COO and President of barre3, a boutique brand with very different DNA. Most recently, he’s been CEO of Core Development & Management, one of the largest Planet Fitness franchise groups in the country—nearly 60 clubs across Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont.
The brands don’t really matter, though. What matters is that Bruce has led affiliate-style franchise networks, boutique studios and full-service clubs. He has driven growth through both organic expansion and acquisition. He has led teams of thousands. Before fitness, he spent more than 25 years at West Marine, growing from the store floor to EVP of Stores, Port Supply and eCommerce, and helping take the company public. The man knows how to scale a multi-unit business without losing the customer experience.
He’s also kept learning.
Earlier this year, Bruce showed up at a MetFix Foundations seminar. He sat in a room learning about metabolic health and mitochondrial energy systems alongside coaches and clinicians. He talked openly about his own struggles with sugar and biomarkers, after decades inside fitness culture.
That’s the action of a leader who knows the industry has to evolve. CrossFit was built on a methodology, not a workout. The methodology needs to keep up with what we’re learning about metabolic health, longevity, and behavior change. CrossFit has to evolve beyond “we don’t do that because that’s not CrossFit” and seeing every new idea as an enemy. Bruce is already in those conversations.
The nexus of history and future.
CrossFit is at a crossroads. Berkshire Partners is looking for the next owner. Affiliate counts are down from their peak. Most of the brand’s biggest fans wish things could go back to the way they used to be. The hard truth is they can’t.
The brand has to evolve without losing touch with its roots. And there is nobody better positioned at that intersection of history and future than Bruce Edwards. He was there when it grew. He was honest about how hard affiliate ownership is when few were. He has spent the last six years learning what other parts of the industry do well. And he’s willing to take responsibility, not just the limelight.
CrossFit doesn’t need a savior. It needs an operator who respects the past, sees the present clearly and is willing to do the work. That’s Bruce.
Welcome back, Bruce. The affiliates are rooting for you.
— Coop
