Billionaire tech CEO Todd McKinnon slams Crossfit and disassociates himself from the group over the founder's controversial tweet about George Floyd
- Tech billionaire Todd McKinnon has announced he is disassociating himself from the fitness organization Crossfit after its founder made offensive statements about George Floyd.
- The Okta CEO has been a very public supporter of Crossfit for years. In 2017, he even competed in its premiere competition that ranked him among the fittest people of all men his age.
- Since Crossfit founder Greg Glassman's statements about Floyd and COVID-19 on Sunday, the fallout has been swift and severe. Crossfit has lost sponsors, employees, athletes, and at least 1,000 affiliate gyms so far, and counting.
- And now, it's publicly lost the support of one its wealthy Silicon Valley advocates.
Todd McKinnon, the billionaire cofounder and CEO of cloud security company Okta, is known in Silicon Valley as a very fit person thanks to his love of Crossfit.
For instance, in 2017, the same year that McKinnon took Okta public, he competed in the big annual Crossfit games and was crowned the 14th fittest man on earth in his 45-to-49 age group. He can handstand walk across an entire room and has been known to do so on request to liven up a meeting.
But on Tuesday, McKinnon weighed in on the drama tearing up the fitness world because of offensive comments that Crossfit founder Greg Glassman made on Twitter regarding George Floyd, the black man killed by police whose death has sparked protests about systemic racism and police brutality worldwide.
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Glassman continued with another tweet that implied that the COVID-19 quarantine wasn't necessary.
"Your failed model quarantined us and now you're going to model a solution to racism? George Floyd's brutal murder sparked riots nationally," he tweeted. "Quarantine alone is 'accompanied in every age and under all political regimes by an undercurrent of suspicion, distrust, and riots.' Thanks!"
Glassman had already called a gym owner "disgusting" in an email after she pushed Crossfit to put out a statement in support of Black Lives Matter.
"You think you are more virtuous than we are. It's disgusting," he wrote as part of a longer-winded rant email that was widely circulated on social media right before he made the ill-advised tweets.
The response to Glassman's comments has been swift and severe. Reebok dropped its sponsorship as did Rogue Fitness. Top employees have resigned while top athletes announced they will boycott the organization and its competitions. Over 1,000 gyms and counting — out of about 14,000 — have dropped their association with the organization. Gyms pay about $3,000 a year to be part of the organization.
But the damage continues. On Tuesday, one of its stars in the wealthy tech community — McKinnon — said he will no longer associate or advocate for the company:
"CrossFit has been part of my life since 2006! But @CrossFitCEO's tweet was unacceptable. The best parts of CrossFit are the community and the affiliates, and I love how they've rallied to condemn the negativity and divisiveness. We need to unite right now not divide," McKinnon wrote in his own tweet.
"I'm with the affiliates and community and will no longer participate in CrossFit events or promote the @CrossFit brand. CrossFit can fix this but it's going to take major actions beyond the apologies they've made," McKinnon said.
Okta, which has had its stock price soar during the coronavirus crisis, says it has donated to Equal Justice Initiative, Southern Poverty Law Center, NAACP, ACLU, MN Freedom Fund, and Black Lives Matter in the wake of Floyd's death.
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