The fitness world experienced a shocking tragedy earlier this month when Serbian athlete Lazar Đukić died on the first day of the 2024 CrossFit Games. The circumstances of the incident are still under investigation. But athletes had already expressed concerns about the 2024 Games and how CrossFit, Inc. organizes sports in general.
After the Games, third-place finisher Brent Fikowski shared a series of slides on Instagram outlining the steps the Professional Fitness Athletes Association (PFAA) had taken before the competition to seek transparency for the 2024 event. (PFAA is An advocacy group for CrossFit athletes, of which Fikowski is president.) Since its founding in 2020, the PFAA has advocated for the professionalization of the sport, advocating a change from standardized referees to higher safety standards. According to Fikowski’s documents, the requests in this case were largely denied. “To me, this is a typical sign of CrossFit’s lack of professionalism and lack of interest in cooperating on safety issues,” he wrote.
After Đukić’s death, many CrossFit athletes found the conditions surrounding the sport unacceptable. Fikowski said this in his post: “We need change and I hope to lead the way with my colleagues at the PFAA on behalf of all athletes, past, present and future, to prevent something like this from happening again in the sport we love.”
Now, the PFAA has released CrossFit, Inc. for the application and three requirements. The group wants transparency in relation Đukić’s death, the formation of a new independent security team and Dave Castro stepping down from his role on the sports team. CrossFit, Inc. A spokesperson shared this response to the PFAA’s demands MH by email:
We recognize the demands made by the PFAA today and appreciate their desire to act. Within 48 hours of the active, ongoing tragic accident, we initiated a third-party investigation. As the facts are gathered in the coming weeks, we stand ready to take any appropriate action based on the findings. In the meantime, CrossFit CEO Don Faul will continue to speak directly with athletes at large, including the PFAA, as well as coaches and other members of the community, to understand their perspectives and how we can work together to create a bigger. confidence and security for the future of our sport.
Fikowski spoke MH to share at length what he and the PFAA want to change and how they believe CrossFit can move forward in protecting its athletes. Here are his words, edited and shortened for clarity.
NATURE AND The basis of our sport and what makes our sport unique is that we don’t know what we’re going to do. You sign up for races at each level, and there’s a certain level of mystery to which events you end up competing in. Sometimes you know about them a week or two in advance. Sometimes you know about them an hour in advance. And it is assumed that if something were to go wrong, we would be saved. We were wrong.
So this is a basic breach of trust. If you look back at my Instagram post from a week ago, it’s clear that trust was weak in many other areas. We’ve spoken with athletes who have competed in various CrossFit competitions over the years, and many have stories that reflect their interactions with CrossFit, Inc. with employees. Unfortunately, this is a story as old as time in many sports. , where the authorities and event organizers treat athletes as disposable. “Oh, if you don’t like it, someone else will take your place. You’re lucky to be here.” This is a very common attitude and that is why sports federations or sports federations are formed to look after the best interests of athletes.
[CrossFit Inc.’s] The reaction over the past four years has been mixed at best, but often dismissive. “We know better.” It’s just a general sentiment and a common tone, and then it’s a pattern of behavior to not listen to concerns. No one on this team has competed or trained at a high level in the sport, and many of them have never competed at a high level in any sport. So we want to take our experience and understanding of this sport, which is very new – and has changed a lot in 10-15 years in terms of the caliber of athletes and the way they train – and try to get that voice. a room where decisions are made.
What we are doing now with these demands is the worst possible scenario. We have always tried to communicate [CrossFit] in a very professional manner. Create clear lines of communication, keep things private, create systems together, collaborate. Bringing this to the public is the result of years of systematic behavior and reluctance.
This statement and these three requirements are a start. We say that more needs to be done to change the cultural and strategic direction of sport, and this is very important. We emphasized that while preparing this statement and talking to several athletes, we wanted to drive it home. It can’t just be, “Hey, these are the three demands” and they’ll follow them and both sides will go back to operating like we did in previous years. This is not our expectation. It’s part of an ongoing effort to force very big changes in the coming weeks and months.
Discussions [about athletes leaving CrossFit] are taking place. When most of the athletes we help represent are asked, “What do you do?” They say, “I’m a CrossFit athlete.” So that word, that name association, that brand still has value to us, and we’re not here to try to destroy that brand. That is not the purpose of these demands. We want to save the brand. However, we believe that CrossFit has people and a culture that needs a major shift. This is our understanding and it is not only felt by the athletes but also by many others involved in the industry. So we’re looking for opportunities that have a future that might involve the brand and the word CrossFit, but we’re also looking for opportunities that don’t, if that’s what it’s about.
When CrossFit, Inc. feels it [Director of the CrossFit Games Dave Castro] has a role in affiliates and training, they are welcome to keep him in that role. As for the sports team, this breach of trust with Lazar’s death — even over the weekend [of the Games] there was more than one instance that represented a consistent pattern of behavior where we felt he was delivering one message to us and then delivering a different message to the public. Along with that, the willingness to cooperate, the willingness to communicate with the athletes individually, collectively and collectively with the PFAA – that hasn’t been there. Looking ahead, there are so many big changes that need to happen. We don’t think that can happen with Dave Castro as part of a sports team.
We want a sport where you are expected to try hard. We want you to go as quickly as possible, and we will create a safe environment for you to do so. And if you might overheat or have trouble in the water, we’ve got you covered. If you rip your hands, we’ll have someone to patch you up. That’s the expectation, and it seems like the lowest we could ask of this competition. We’re not asking for free snacks, are we? The next level is that we want to find out who is the best. You don’t have to hurt us or put us through more than it takes to sort us out from start to finish. We don’t need to do 10,000 reps when 1,000 reps would be fine.
Lazar had a great sense of humor. This has always caught my eye. Big smile, always trash talking – in the best way. We needed a European representative [for the PFAA]so I dragged him into it. He was happy to do so. I think it came from Lazar and his brother [Luka]they wanted to make competing in this sport their main source of income. They would compete as often or more often than most other men at their level. They would travel around Europe and organize competitions – and the longer you compete, the more you see. In many cases, the culture of how the competition organizers treat the athletes is reflected in the way CrossFit even portrays it in its media. It’s an attitude of, “Hey, if you don’t like it, leave.”
But Lazar was a friend and a very good athlete. He was one of the few athletes who came to my coach and had a genuine conversation with him. It wasn’t just “hello, goodbye” – it was real. I always wanted to spend more time with him. It’s hard when you compete. I always thought I would be able to spend more time with him after I finished competing. It’s hard that he’s gone.
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