I would say I’ve been in and out of the sport of CrossFit for almost 15 years. Originally, Planet Granite was a CrossFit gym, and that is where I first started doing classes. They were fun and engaging, and I liked being in a group workout class. Many exercises were body weight, which has often been a challenge for me because I’m strong and good at certain lifts, but because of the muscle, I’m heavy.
When I moved to RI during the pandemic, CrossFit was one of the activities I got into. There is a pretty cool gym on the island, and the group was fun, so I went regularly for quite a while. The group convinced me to participate in the CrossFit Open, and I’ve done that for the past couple of years, even if I have to do them as a drop-in (I am currently not a member).
I even did the open this year. It was a bad showing, as I’m in one of the worst shapes of my life, but it was still fun to be a part of it.
The Open is a way for all athletes worldwide to participate together. The athletes are then whittled down to the best of the best, and eventually, they have the CrossFit games, where they crown the fittest on earth.
I didn’t even know the games were starting. I was too busy with work, both farming and coding. Still, I saw a YouTube video from the founder of CrossFit about the tragic loss in event one of the games this season. Lazar Dukic went under during the swim section and didn’t come up. There was a lot of confusion, and it took a while for CrossFit to realize what was going on. They ended up canceling the rest of the events for the weekend.
After a discussion with the athletes and coaches, Crossfit decided to proceed with the games, skip the rest of Thursday’s events, and have a tribute video for Lazar on Friday.
After the games, there has been much discussion about them.
As someone on the far rims of this community, I find it hard to comprehend why this affects me. I wasn’t a Lazar fan before the event. I didn’t know his name. I knew the people who won the games and some other names, but not Lazar. I’m not at a level where I would ever be in the games, nor is that a goal of my training or fitness.
What scares me more is the lack of safety in place for the athletes and the notion that Crossfit, at this point, is more about the business of the sport and less about the goal of getting people to do more fitness.
This has been a constant concern for me, even with smaller boxes. The weights and moves that we are doing could be more technical and more accessible. If someone executes with poor technique, injury is a real possibility. Classes often have high student-to-teacher ratios, upwards of 15:1. How can a coach practically be responsible for the execution of deadlifts of 15 different students at the same time, especially if they are doing this under time constraints?
Technical lifting knowledge is the participant’s responsibility, and many participants still need to come to this sport with that knowledge to be successful and prevent injury. Some of us have a false sense of knowledge because we have done other sports.
To reach this high level of competition, with 315k in prize money for the winners, and not having athlete safety involved to a level where this could never happen seems negligent.
The PFAA, an organization of athletes and coaches set up to protect CrossFit games athletes, calls for profound changes. One of them is the removal of Dave Castro from the games part of the organization. I have never really been a fan of Dave Castro, but I don’t know how much responsibility lies with him about this tragedy. First, there was an issue with Glassman, and then Castro was fired. Eventually, he was brought back to this position. Is there an institutional problem with the leadership at CrossFit?
There is a lot of sense behind constantly changing your workouts and doing new exercises, including High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). Crossfit is the way to go, but another competition series may come up that is more focused on athlete safety and, therefore, more successful.
This post was about Lazar’s passing, yet I’ve talked little about him. I didn’t know him, and I wasn’t even a fan, yet his passing changed the way I look at a sport I’ve been on the fringes of for about 15 years. I’m sorry he’s gone. I’m sorry I never got to be his fan. I’m sad he had to pass for us to see CrossFit this way and take safety more seriously. I’m grateful there is so much discussion about this, and that real change may come from it.