MADISON, Wis. — The CrossFit Games took place in Madison for the last time this week.

The big event has been held in Wisconsin’s capital city every summer since 2017. It has had a huge impact, bringing in about 50,000 people to town every year.

“Madison is a really fit community, and it really embraces fitness and activities and people coming from all over the world, and that’s what CrossFit is,” said Jamie Patrick, vice president of the Madison Area Sports Commission.

Patrick said the annual games have generated an economic impact of more than $75 million for Dane County over the past six years.

Athletes and spectators come from all over the world for the CrossFit Games.

“We’ve seen over 350,000 people experience Madison, many of them for the first time,” he said.  

Troy Peterson is one of the vendors at the event. He’s selling gear to raise money and awareness for his organization ValorFit, which aims to help those who’ve served the country recover from post-traumatic stress disorder.

“What our nonprofit does is partner struggling veterans with CrossFit affiliates and pay for their gym memberships for up to six months,” Peterson said.

Peterson is based in Iowa. He said he loves Madison as a host city, but like most who travel for the games, will go wherever they move to.

“It’s super exciting to be here to be part of the Madison stuff that I see on TV, but also it’s super exciting to plan what’s next for us as an organization,” Peterson said.

Madison leaders said they were hoping for at least one more year, but they always knew the end would come. The CrossFit Games committed to three years in Madison and ended up staying for six.

“We certainly didn’t expect the CrossFit Games to be here forever,” Patrick said. “We were hoping that next year was going to be our last year, but the way it worked out, this is going to be the last year.”

The games wrap up on Sunday, Aug. 6.

Madison leaders are now working to attract other big-name, repeat events.