Athletes and coaches have begun expressing their anger in the wake of Lazar Đukić’s tragic death last Thursday during the swim portion of Event 1 at the 2024 CrossFit Games.
While a third-party investigation into the death is ongoing, much of that anger is being directed at CrossFit LLC, with many in the sport feeling that Đukić’s death was the final straw in years of living in a secretive culture that feels more like surviving a war than competing in a professional sport.
“This isn’t war; this is sport. And I feel like we have been trying, for some reason, to find the athletes’ breaking point for too long, and we found it,” Pat Vellner said in an interview with the Buttery Bros.
“We have been shouting for years about safety concerns, only to be patted on the head and told we’re just being hysterical and complaining. It just feels like it was only a matter of time. We have been pushing athletes in the wrong way,” Vellner continued.
Similarly, Brent Fikowski, this year’s third-place finisher and president of the Professional Fitness Athletes Association (PFAA), took to Instagram on Tuesday to express his disappointment with CrossFit.
“Every year, my trust in the CrossFit Games staff’s ability to run an effective competition erodes more and more. It’s not a secret that many competing athletes resent the organization,” FIkowki wrote.
“Whilst I know that CrossFit does not aim to hurt anybody, when they say ‘safety is our number one priority,’ I simply have not believed this to be true for a long time.”
CrossFit’s priority, Fikowski believes, is “‘the test’ and the creative freedom they wish to exert when inventing these workouts.”
“Athlete safety comes, at best, a paltry second, and this past weekend, that strategy went terribly wrong with the most tragic of consequences,” he added.
A Look at the Past
Fikowski went on to point to various times he felt athletes got injured or sick because of programming decisions made by CrossFit.
“A knee injury caused by doing a max back squat on a wet wooden platform in the rain [Alex Caron in 2018]; an injury from landing on a coiled climbing rope [Scott Panchik at Semifinals in 2022]; achilles injuries from rebounding box jumps; 36 out of 320 men experiencing pectoral tears in three consecutive weeks of Regionals with no programming alterations; or illness from E. Coli bacteria in a lake,” Fikowski wrote.
He continued: “It’s a pattern of behavior. It’s their repeated attitude to our concerns. We try to provide feedback. They don’t listen.”
One big thing: Becoming sick after swimming in Lake Monona — a lake that often gets closed for swimming in the summer due to high levels of E.coli — was something athletes and their coaches say they came to expect at the CrossFit Games in the Madison years.
“It’s like that every year, [yet]…they still freakin’ do it, so I think it’s time that the athletes say something,” Michele Letendre, Vellner’s coach, told the Morning Chalk Up in 2022. “But athletes don’t want to be on the wrong side… Every single year there are problems with the water. Every single year. Like every time we go to Madison… no local is swimming in the water.”
Underdogs Athletics coach Justin Cotler added: “I mean, c’mon, man. [CrossFit Games] week is hard enough physically and then you’re going to add that on top of it. It just doesn’t make sense. We need to really look out for those athletes. It’s just irresponsible [to swim in that lake],” Cotler said. “It’s just ridiculous.”
About the Texas Heat
In his post on Tuesday, Fikowski also detailed how the PFAA tried to get “more clarity” from CrossFit on the heat they were expecting when the Games moved from Madison to Fort Worth, TX, this year.
In September 2023, CrossFit announced the Games would be held in Texas, and that “95 percent of the events will be indoors,” Fikowski wrote.
In December 2023, the PFAA emailed CrossFit, essentially asking them how many events will be held outdoors, their duration, and the time of the day in order to best prepare to acclimatize to competing in these conditions.
“CrossFit’s answer: ‘We are not releasing event details at this time, but we assure you that athlete safety is our number one priority when considering the climate in Fort Worth,’” Fikowski wrote.
The PFAA then sent CrossFit a two-page document reiterating their concerns in more detail, and CrossFit responded by saying, “A much smaller percentage of events than Madison will occur outdoors.”
Fikowski’s take: “To me, this is a typical indication of CrossFit’s lack of professionalism and interest in collaborating on safety concerns. I kept thinking, is that the best you can do for the athletes? This is the absolute simplest request, we’re not even asking you to keep us out of the heat; we’re just asking, please tell us how often and for how long we will be in the heat….Is the secrecy of your workouts more important than increasing the ability of an athlete to prepare for the heat safely?”
The Big Picture
For many, Đukić’s death was the breaking point after years of pent-up frustration. For Fikowski, he made his feelings clear: “With the death of Lazar, the trust is gone.”
Still, he said he remains committed to leading the charge to change the culture of CrossFit.
“In the coming weeks, a lot of work needs to be done, and I plan to play a leadership role via the PFAA to keep pushing for change in a sport I know can be so much better in every way, even if my love of competing has dimmed,” he concluded.
CrossFit Community Looks to Athletes on Social Media, Aims to Connect With Đukić Family
“He Was There, Then He Was Gone”: Former Lifeguard Gives Eyewitness Account of Lazar Đukić’s Death
“You Loved the Sport That Didn’t Love You Back”: Luka Đukić Comments on Brother Lazar’s Death
Featured image: @fikowski / Instagram
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