28 year-old Lazar Dukic drowned during a swim event at the CrossFit Games on August 8. He died while spectators watched. He died while two people on nearby paddle boards did nothing. Thousands of people watched him struggle for at least 47-seconds. We watched him die with no one making any attempt to help him.
The gaslighting apologia started immediately. “It was an accident.” “We have to wait to learn more.” “We don’t know what happened.” Yes we do.
What happened was that nothing was done to try and save a drowning man. What happened before that is irrelevant.
47-seconds is more than enough time try to save a life, if you are prepared. It’s enough time to get a paddle board for someone who is struggling to hold on to, to toss a flotation device, to call for help if you have radios and a plan. Enough time for a rescue swimmer to grab a drowning man so they can drag him to the shore he was so close to.
Don’t tell us we don’t know what happened. We do. We saw it.
What happened was that nothing was done to try and save a drowning man. It doesn’t matter why he needed help, what matters is that he didn’t get it.
People are making excuses like “water is dangerous,” which is true. But that illustrates how inexcusable it is to not have qualified safety professionals within reach of every swimmer.
The CrossFit Games knows how dangerous water events are. A 2017 issue of The CrossFit Journal shared a “touching” tale of the time Robert Caslin saved the life of fellow competitor, Will Powell as Powell was drowning during the swim portion of a Games event. CrossFit’s own telling of that story includes the detail, “Caslin estimated it was about seven minutes when a kayak arrived on the scene. As Powell gripped the edge, Caslin towed him toward shore until a judges motorboat arrived to complete the rescue.”
Seven minutes before help arrived. More than enough time to drown.
This tale is repeated in a different form when Chris Hinshaw tells the story of Matt Fraser, 6 time winner of The Games, being saved by Brent Fikowski.
Powell. Fraser. Dukic. 3rd times the……?
If The Games are going to continue, the organizers need to take safety more seriously. That starts with acknowledging that this is an ongoing problem, not an isolated incident.
People, like Adam Schulte, who spoke up in 2015 were basically excommunicated from the CF Community for speaking out, as retold in a recent Barbend article. (Cultish, anyone?)
In a scathing and revealing post on Instagram, Brent Fikowski outlined previous attempts at getting CrossFit to take athletes’ concerns about safety issues seriously.
A timeline of dangerous programming and lack of safety protocols that he says has undermined trust in CrossFit, includes: heavy lifts on wet surfaces, 36 pec tears because of programming, being asked to swim in lakes with known E. Coli bacteria, heat stroke. And that’s just what fits in an Instagram post, there’s also that time Maddy Myers was hospitalized with Rhabdo, and more. As he says, “it’s a pattern of behavior. It’s their repeated attitude to our concerns. We try to provide feedback. They don’t listen.”
As if to ante up on that point, on the August 14, 2024 episode of Sevan’s podcast in which he recapped the Games with Greg Glassman, Greg mocked those calling out leadership for the complete absence of safety protocols for this year’s swim by saying “… and you all think you could do better? The fuck you can…..”
Yes, we fucking can. Literally anyone could have spent 60 seconds Googling widely-accepted safety protocols from established governing bodies like USA Swimming, and World Triathlon. They could spend another 20 minutes copy / pasting it and naming it something like “CrossFit Games Water Safety Protocols.”
It would include common guidelines like:
· No swimming in water that’s more than 85 degrees, as opposed to the reported 87-90 degrees of the water that swallowed Lazar. (An accepted international standard.)
· Having actual rescue swimmers and lifeguards all along the route so that each segment had eyes on it, armed with rescue devices no more than 30-seconds away.
· Adequate communication devices so that all people on the safety team can communicate in real time in order to effectively respond to an emergency.
· Having BLS and ALS onsite, so that if someone was hauled to shore, they would have immediate access to life-saving measures and transport if needed. (It has been reported that there was a full hour lapse between the last sighting of Lazar and anyone calling 911.)
All of these regulations are so readily available and commonly accepted that it seems like not having them could possibly leave CrossFit, and their personnel, open to a claim of manslaughter or criminal negligence, even in Texas. It’s not a stretch to think that this “recklessly caused the death of an individual, even if there was no intent to kill.”
According to Texas Penal code: “A person acts recklessly, or is reckless, with respect to circumstances surrounding his conduct or the result of his conduct when he is aware of but consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the circumstances exist or the result will occur. The risk must be of such a nature and degree that its disregard constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of care that an ordinary person would exercise under all the circumstances as viewed from the actor’s standpoint.”
I’m not a lawyer, but if had a vested interest on any side of this case, I’d be feeling some kind of way. I'm guessing I'm not the only person who Googled that after watching this.
Similar regulations exist for every aspect of what CrossFit does, because CrossFit is nothing more than an amalgam of existing sports – gymnastics, Weightlifting, power lifting, track and field - all of which have been competing for decades and have protocols in place to do so as safely as possible. There’s nothing “unknown or unknowable” about the events that would prevent organizers from planning adequate safety protocols.
I’m assuming that the two people on paddle boards, who we all watched do nothing, weren’t lifeguards.
Who were they? And why did CrossFit put them in that situation in the first place?
CrossFit is known for using volunteer labor at these events. Besides possibly being a violation of US labor law – in the US, it is illegal for for-profit companies to use volunteers – that is a horrible position for CrossFit to put unprepared volunteers in! (And another legal liability, if past volunteers are so inclined.)
The fuck we can’t do better.
Looking back, there are a lot of questions. Hopefully these, and more, will be answered in the 3rd Party Investigation that needs to be made public, in its’ entirety. Complete transparency is the bare minimum required to start rebuilding trust, if that’s even possible. But let’s start with:
· Who wrote the safety plan?
· Who signed off on the safety plan?
· What was the safety plan and did it meet common standards?
· Who was the safety team?
· What were their qualifications?
· What equipment and training did they have for rescue?
· What equipment and training did they have for communication?
· How were protocols explained and trained?
· Who insured this and what did they require?
· Who permitted this and what did they require?
· Were athletes told they be DQd if they asked for help?
· AND HOW CAN WE TRUST ANY FUTURE EVENT?
Looking forward, what does this mean for the future of CrossFit?
I don’t know, but people are rightly scared. Lives and livelihoods are on the line.
Admittedly, I don’t care much about CrossFit HQ. But, the larger community is made up of professional athletes who made a career out of it, affiliates who care a lot and run great gyms, and probably millions of people whose lives have changed because of it. I care about them and their success, quite a lot. They deserve better.
The good news is that none of their success is really because of CrossFit HQ, is it? CrossFit as we know it could die an ignominious death from lawsuits and bankruptcy and nothing would have to change for any of those people.
The word “CrossFit” is just a word that affiliates pay money to use for marketing their businesses. It has no meaning.
What you get in one CrossFit gym is wildly different from what you’d get in another one. CrossFit, like the Games, is simply an amalgam of everything that came before it. What a consumer will find when they walk into a CrossFit gym is the only thing about CrossFit that is “unknown and unknowable.”
CrossFit affiliates are not monitored, there are no guidelines or expectations of what they can or should do. There is nothing that defines “the CrossFit methodology” in a way that is unique to, or consistent across, CrossFit gyms. Not programming, not coaching style, not vibes, nothing. (Which might present another legal liability, if you feel like Googling the definition of a naked license to a registered trademark.) (Ok, also, who did the valuation on this company to pull in $200M of private equity?)
If you are running a successful “CrossFit” gym, it’s because of YOU. You did it. Look at your daily operations, how much would change if CrossFit didn’t exist? Nothing, because it’s all YOU. Without you, there would be no CrossFit. They need you more than you need them. If this is important to you, band together, demand change. Or go your own way, you’ll be fine. (I know what I’m talking about here, LOL.)
If you are a professional athlete, same. Those sponsors are investing in YOU, not in the brand. “Some Games” could go on, even without CrossFit. From a pure marketing perspective, supporting you in a new endeavor would be gold for sponsors, enabling them to show they care about empowering people. Easiest marketing campaign ever.
Without you, there are no Games. If this matters to you, band together, demand change by actually withholding your participation. Or go your own way and build the better thing that you all deserve. People, and money, would follow you. I’d gamble that there are more people and sponsors who want to give you money without the taint of CrossFit than there are who want to give CrossFit money without you.
Collectively, you have the power. I don’t know if CrossFit as we know it survives this. I do know that this situation requires full accountability for what happened to Lazar Dukic. Athletes, affiliates, fans and even sponsors need that.
Will CrossFit burn their own house down with lawsuits brought on by their callus incompetence on multiple fronts? Dunno.
If they survive it will be because the community that grew around them holds them accountable and forces them to become better than they ever have been before. Forces real change.
If not, that same community will build something new and continue changing lives for the better.
Except the one life that was lost.
May his memory be an inspiration.