The world of fitness sports experienced a shocking tragedy earlier this month when Serbian athlete Lazar Dukic died on the first day of the 2024 CrossFit Games. Investigations are still ongoing regarding the nature of the incident. But athletes have expressed concern about the 2024 Games—and how CrossFit, Inc. Sports in general—before the competition begins.
After the Games, third-place finisher Brent Fikowski shared a series of slides on Instagram that the Professional Fitness Athletes Association (PFAA), an advocacy group for CrossFit athletes of which he serves as president, of the competition. Requested before. More transparency about the 2024 event. The PFAA has pushed for the professionalization of the sport since its founding in 2020, advocating changes from standard refereeing to higher safety standards. The pleadings in this case were largely denied as Fickowski documents. “To me, this is a clear indication of CrossFit’s lack of professionalism and reluctance to cooperate with safety concerns,” he wrote.
After Duke’s death, the conditions surrounding the sport were no longer acceptable for many athletes. Fikowski said as much in his post: “We need change and I, along with my colleagues at the PFAA, hope to lead on behalf of all athletes, past, present and future, to prevent something like this from happening in the sport. Be caught. Love.”
Now, the PFAA is part of CrossFit, Inc. issued a statement and three demands, including transparency surrounding the investigation. Duke’s death, creation of new independent security team, and Dave Castro’s resignation from his role on the sports team. [Editor’s note: Men’s Health reached out to CrossFit, Inc. for comment on the demands and has not yet heard back.]
Fikowski spoke MH To share what he and the PFAA are looking to change in the long term, and how they believe CrossFit can move forward to protect its athletes. Here are his words, edited and condensed for clarity.
Nature and The foundation of our sport, and what makes our sport unique, is that we don’t know what we’re doing. You sign up to compete at any level, and there are different levels when it comes to which events you compete in. Sometimes you know about it a week or two before. Sometimes you know about them an hour in advance. And there is an assumption that if something goes wrong, we will be saved. We were wrong.
So this is a real breach of trust. If you look at my Instagram post from a week ago, it’s clear that confidence was lacking in many other areas. We have spoken with athletes who have competed in various CrossFit competitions over the years, and many have stories that mirror the interactions I have had with the staff at CrossFit, Inc. Unfortunately, this is a story as old as time in most sports. , where those who hold power and organize events treat athletes as expendable. “Yeah, if you don’t like it, someone else will take your place. You’re lucky to be here.” This is a very common behavior, and that is why sports associations or players associations are formed to look out for the best interests of the players.
[CrossFit Inc.’s] Reactions over the past four years have been mixed, but mostly dismissive. “We know better.” It’s just a general feeling and a general tone, and then it’s an example of a concerned listening behavior. No one on this team has competed at a high level or trained at a high level in this sport, and most have not competed at a high level in any sport. So the hope is for us to take our experience and our knowledge of this sport that’s so new – and it’s 10 to 15 years from now, the ability of the athletes and how we train – and try to get that buzz. To the room where decisions are made.
What we do with these requests now is the worst possible scenario. We are always looking to engage [CrossFit] In a very professional manner. Create clear lines of communication, keep things personal, build systems together, work together. Bringing this to people is the result of this systemic approach and unwillingness to engage.
This statement and these three requests – this is the beginning. We say that more needs to be done to change the cultural, strategic direction of sports, and this is very important. We emphasized as we prepared this statement and talked to many athletes, and this was what they wanted to take home. It can’t just be, “Hey, it’s three requests,” and they accept it, and both sides go back to their activities like we’ve done in years past. This is not our expectation. This will be part of an ongoing effort to push for some much bigger change in the coming weeks and months.
discussions [about athletes leaving CrossFit] Done when many of the athletes we represent are asked, “What do you do?” They’ll say, “I’m a CrossFit athlete.” So that word, that association of that name, that brand, is still valuable to us, and we’re not here to try to destroy that brand. This is not the purpose of any of our requests. We want to protect the brand. However, we believe that there are individuals who work in CrossFit and there is a culture that needs a big change. This is our perception, and it is a perception held not only by athletes, but many others involved in this industry. So we’re looking at options where there’s a future that includes the brand and includes the word CrossFit, but we’re also looking at options that if that’s what it comes down to.
If CrossFit, Inc. It makes sense [Director of the CrossFit Games Dave Castro] Having a role in affiliate and training, they are happy to keep him in that role. When it comes to the sports team, this breach of faith about the death of Lazar even during the week [of the Games] There were more than one incident that represented a consistent pattern of behavior in which we felt that he had delivered one message to us, and then delivered another message to the public. Despite this, the willingness to cooperate, the willingness to communicate with athletes individually, collectively, and collectively with the PFAA – it is not there. Looking ahead, many major changes are needed. We don’t feel like that could happen to Dave Castro as part of a sports team.
We want a sport where there is an expectation that they want you to push hard. We want you to leave as soon as possible, and we will create a safe environment for you to do so. And if you ever get too hot, or if you struggle in the water, we’ll be there for you. If you break your arm, we’ll have someone there to help you. That’s the expectation, and it feels like the lowest expectation we can ask of this competition. We’re not asking for a free lunch, right? There is another level to this, we want to find out who is the best. You don’t have to hurt us or give us more than necessary to sort us out from first to last. We don’t need to do 10,000 reps when 1,000 reps is fine.
Lazar had a great sense of humor. This is something that has always stuck with me. Big smile, always talking trash – in the best way. We needed a European representative [for the PFAA]so I kind of put him in it. He was happy to do so. I think it originated with Lazarus and his brother [Luka]they wanted to compete in this sport as their primary source of income. They will compete as often or more often than most other men at their level. They’ll travel around Europe and compete—and the more you compete, the more you see. Often, the culture of how competition organizers treat athletes reflects how CrossFit even portrays it in its media. It’s that, “Hey, if you don’t like it, leave it,” attitude.
But Lazarus was a friend and a good player. He was one of the few players who would come up to my coach and talk to him honestly. It wasn’t just “hello, goodbye”—it was real. I always wanted to spend more time with him. It’s hard when you’re competing. I always thought I would spend more time with him when I finished racing. It’s hard to let him go.
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