The more I think about this, the more I think it's kind of the ultimate refutation of Crossfit's own slogan ("The Fittest on Earth") and hopefully a kind of wake-up call to the organizers of the event.
You can tell that when this course was put together the organizers had visions of their elite squads of athletes battling each other through water, sand, and mountain, providing some drama for the cameras. The believed their own hype-- hey, these people are really good at lifting weights and climbing ropes, so an open water swim and a mountain run should be no problem, right? Instead, they got conclusive proof of the limitations of their approach. First of all, none of these athletes, 90+ of the best crossfitters in the world, can swim. The leader (by a solid margin) came through the 700-meter swim in 13:30. If you give him 16:00 for an 800-meter swim, he's mid-pack at any decent-sized sprint triathlon. Most of the other athletes weren't close-- one guy couldn't finish, another had to rest on a jetski, get taken back to shore, rest more, and then go back out to finish the swim. Two women couldn't finish the swim-- so now they're out for the entire competition.
I don't know what to say about the single-speed bike over sand except that it's just fundamentally stupid and doesn't really test anything other than the ability to go slow on a bike.
The run is where I feel like this event veered almost into dangerous territory. To put it simply, most athletes of that size and limited running experience have no business attempting a run like that in those conditions. The second place finisher was taken to the hospital after he crossed the finish line. One of the pre-race finishers spent a lot of his time stopped, stretching, and screaming in pain. Three people were on IVs afterwards. Only 9 of the men were able to beat the group of 3 lead women over the run portion. One of the women was out there for over three hours-- for an 11k! That's a slow walk.
They even had to cancel one of the ensuing events, the broad jump. That's how much they brutalized their own athletes-- they couldn't even do a damn jump anymore.
Watch this recap video:
http://games.crossfit.com/video/crossfit-games-update-july-11-2012
Most of the "highlights" are about people struggling, and then they spend five minutes trying to figure out why the defending champs and pre-event favorites struggled so much. I think I know why: because they can't swim or run. You destroyed your best athletes by beginning the competition with events that they CAN'T DO, no matter how good they are at climbing ropes and throwing tires.
These folks are weightlifters. That's great. Pretending that they are these amazing all-around athletes is both disingenuous and frankly a little dangerous.