Racist tweets from CrossFit CEO prompt Cary gym to drop affiliation

Mike Young, owner of Athletic Lab, a sports performance and fitness training center has been in business for 10 years. He's affiliated with "CrossFit." But after an invitation to a Zoom call with CrossFit founder and CEO Greg Glassman, Young no longer wants to be associated with the company.

"It quickly turned into a discussion of George Floyd and injustice and that's when things quickly took a turn," said Young.

Young says the Zoom call, with about 15 people on it, escalated quickly.

"The one thing I remember him saying explicitly was: I don't mourn George Floyd. He said it repeatedly. He was callous and insensitive at best," Young said.

Then came the tweets where he criticized the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

"In response to a tweet that said racism is a public health issue, Glassman said it's 'a FLOYD-19 issue,'" Young said.

Since then, Glassman has apologized several times on Twitter saying, "I, CrossFit HQ and the CrossFit community will not stand for racism. I made a mistake by the words I chose yesterday."

But that won't change Young's mind. He feels like removing his affiliation with CrossFit was the best thing to do.

"I couldn't be associated with an organization that was so insensitive especially at a time of national crisis over this issue," Young said.

Young will be staying at this location, but he is cutting all ties with the CrossFit organization and he'll be changing the name.

WRAL News reached out to Glassman for a response, but have yet to hear back.