After Tragedy, CrossFit Faces an Identity Crisis

FORT WORTH, Texas – The atmosphere at last week’s CrossFit Games closing ceremony at Dickies Arena, a 14,000-seat venue in Fort Worth, Texas, was palpable.

It was traditionally a moment of triumph for the men and women who were named “the fittest in the world” after participating in a four-day competition involving grueling feats of physical strength and endurance, this year’s festival was overshadowed by the death of a contestant on the first day of the festival. competition. Lazar Dukic, a 28-year-old Serbian athlete, died during an 800-meter open water swim at Marine Creek Lake.

Dukic’s death was the first in the event’s 17-year history. It has raised many concerns, some long-standing, about the safety of CrossFit as a form of exercise and competitive sport.

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When Greg Glassman, a personal trainer and former fitness expert, founded CrossFit in the mid-1990s, he took a completely different approach to exercise than bench presses and curls. of dumbbells that were available in gyms at the time. His style combined elements of Olympic weightlifting and gymnastics with movements including kettlebells, rowing machines and skipping ropes – a program of “various functional behaviours, high intensity,” as Glassman originally explained.

Early followers of CrossFit included members of law enforcement and the military, associating it with cleanliness and a tough mind. Glassman didn’t exactly suppress that feeling: Speaking about CrossFit in The New York Times in 2005, he said, “If the feeling of falling through the rings and breaking your neck is unfamiliar to you, then we look for us.”

But part of its appeal was that the exercises, while sometimes grueling, could be adapted to accommodate almost anyone: Although one athlete might jump on ‘a box of 30 inches, one can step on a high platform, achieving the same impact with different forces. .

That reach helped CrossFit grow rapidly in the 2000s and 2010s, even as some people saw its exercise as dangerous for the untrained. The old, quirky mascot was “Uncle Rhabdo,” a vomiting friend named after a potentially dangerous muscle condition that CrossFit was sometimes known to cause.

The dedication it inspired helped it surpass other fitness fads. CrossFit popularized the concept of “long-term training” and spawned many developers, including OrangeTheory, Barry’s Bootcamp and F45. If you’ve ever done kettlebell swings, wall ball shots or double jump rope, you’ve felt the influence of CrossFit, which has changed the way many Americans exercise.

After Glassman sold the company in 2020 amid scandal, CrossFit changed its messaging to emphasize access, abandoning its original slogan, “Forging Elite Fitness.” The company has tried to emphasize its openness to beginners, returning to Glassman’s idea that “the needs of Olympians and our grandparents differ in degree, not in kind.”

But CrossFit workouts and CrossFit Games are meant to be different.

The CrossFit Games, a competition for elite athletes, have been held annually since 2007. They were conceived “as a marketing effort at a time when the company did not have a marketing department,” to said Adrian Bozman, CrossFit competition director. Over the years, it has been the subject of popular documentaries and a must-see event for fans.

The apparent purpose of the CrossFit Games is to test the strongest in the world by challenging them to overcome the “unknown and unknown,” which CrossFit aims to prepare. Participants perform a variety of standard CrossFit movements, such as heavy barbell pull-ups or bar-ups, as well as more unusual activities, such as jumping jacks, throwing a sledgehammer or throwing medicine ball in one place. Outdoor swimming events, although common in the Games, would not be done in a CrossFit class.

However, some elite CrossFit athletes have said that the competition often pushes participants too far, beyond what is necessary to attempt the exercise. During an outdoor event in 2015, several participants died from heat exhaustion. Chris Hinshaw, the former coach of multiple CrossFit Games champion Mat Fraser, described how Fraser almost drowned during a swimming event in 2017.

“We’ve been talking about our safety issues for a long time, and it’s falling on deaf ears,” said Pat Vellner, a former CrossFit Games competitor.

Questions about the safety of the competition arose soon after Dukic’s death. Some people took issue with the decision to hold outdoor running and swimming in Texas in August, when the water temperature was considered unsafe; others wondered if enough rescuers and security personnel had attended the scene.

The morning after Dukic’s death, Dave Castro, CrossFit’s athletic director and organizer of the Games, said in an interview that safety is “always a consideration.” Castro declined repeated requests for a follow-up review.

After Dukic’s death, some events that day were canceled. But the next day, after hours of discussions and negotiations with other athletes and Dukic’s family, the organizers decided to continue with a modified version of the competition schedule.

“We spent a lot of time talking about this, and we were clear that the decision had to be about how to honor him,” said Don Faul, the current CEO of CrossFit. “If we felt that the right way to honor him was to cancel the Games, we would cancel the Games entirely.”

Of the 80 people who were in the competition, 13 withdrew immediately because of the decision to continue. (Those who quit at the time included Jeffrey Adler and Laura Horvath, the reigning men’s and women’s champions.) More athletes continued to withdraw from the event as it went on, including Arielle Loewen.

“It felt wrong to go to the championship game and pretend everything was fine, pretend everything was fine, pretend the show had to go on. , this is a tragedy and we should treat it as such,” Loewen said.

The Professional Fitness Athletes’ Association, a group that includes CrossFit Games athletes Brent Fikowski, Annie Thorisdottir and Vellner, called for Castro to be removed from his position as director of the Games, suggesting that the athletes hold the program accountable. how much in Dukic’s death. .

Tia-Clair Toomey, 31, a seven-time Australian champion who knew Dukic, chose to stay in the competition because, knowing Dukic from previous Games, she believed that ” that’s what he would have done himself.”

He added that he thinks that “Dave and his team try to make every event as safe as possible.”

Attitudes among CrossFit fans were also divided. Rob LaLonde, a gym owner from Ottawa, Ontario, who was at the Games, said he had a “whirlwind of not knowing what to feel or think,” but adding that he is happy that the Games are continuing.

Thea Andreasdottir, a German athlete, said “she has never been touched by the death of a stranger.” He blamed Dukic’s death entirely on the organization.

Vellner, who was a former CrossFit Games competitor, hoped Dukic’s death would spark some reaction among CrossFit leaders. But, he said, “the fear is that at the end of this there is no accountability.”

Whether the death of a top CrossFit Games athlete will prevent other athletes from competing, or will prevent regular exercisers from entering their CrossFit gym, remains to be seen. it will be seen. Most long-time CrossFit enthusiasts understand that the CrossFit Games are very different from a workout, and that what happens in one does not necessarily indicate the other. But will that be clear to outsiders?

Danielle Brandon, 28, who participated in her sixth CrossFit Games this year, was among the athletes who chose to continue competing. He said he has always felt safe in the competition despite the “danger” involved.

“I mean, CrossFit itself — it’s crazy, right?” Brandon said as he warmed up for an event that included sprints, toes-to-bar and 70-pound-dumbbell curls. “What is safe about putting a heavy dumbbell on your head?”

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