Individual

An individual is a person or a specific object. Individuality (or selfhood) is the state or quality of being an individual; particularly of being a person separate from other persons and possessing his or her own needs or goals. The exact definition of an individual is important in the fields of biology, law, and philosophy.

From the 15th century and earlier (and also today within the fields of statistics and metaphysics) individual meant "indivisible", typically describing any numerically singular thing, but sometimes meaning "a person". From the 17th century on, individual indicates separateness, as in individualism.

In law

An individual de facto lawfully defined usually refers to a natural person, as opposed to a legal person (which could be a corporation). It can also possibly be a person or a specific object if otherwise defined.

Philosophical views of the individual human

Empiricism

Early empiricists such as Ibn Tufail in early 12th century Islamic Spain, and John Locke in late 17th century England, introduced the idea of the individual as a tabula rasa ("blank slate"), shaped from birth by experience and education. This ties into the idea of the liberty and rights of the individual, society as a social contract between rational individuals, and the beginnings of individualism as a doctrine.

CrossFit Games

The CrossFit Games is an athletic competition sponsored by Crossfit Inc. The competition has been held every summer since 2007. Athletes at the Games compete in workouts they learn about only hours beforehand, mostly comprising an assortment of standard aerobic, weightlifting, and gymnastics movements, as well as surprise elements that are not part of the typical CrossFit regimen such as an ocean swim, a short triathlon, or a softball throw. The Games are styled as a venue for determining the "Fittest on Earth," where competitors should be "ready for anything."

History

In 2011, the Games adopted an online format for the first stage of the qualification process, called the "CrossFit Open", to facilitate participation by athletes worldwide. Prior to the introduction of the Open, the preponderance of competitors were American (though the 2009 individual men's champion, Mikko Salo, is from Finland, and the 2010 women's runner-up, Annie Thorisdottir, is from Iceland). During the Open, a new workout is released each week on Thursday night and athletes have until Monday evening (Pacific Time) to complete the workout and submit their scores online, with either a video or validation by a CrossFit affiliate. Beginning in 2013, CrossFit began airing live announcements for the Open workouts and would have past CrossFit Games athletes immediately complete the workout in a head-to-head competition. The top CrossFit Open performers in each region advance to the regional events, held over the following two months; the top performers from these regional competitions go to the CrossFit Games, which in recent years have been held at the StubHub Center in Carson, CA.