Redacting personal information from the report and/or releasing specific portions from the report would show CrossFit taking accountability and providing transparency. It’s completely reasonable to keep employeees information private, but even a summary provided to the community would go a long way.
@@TeamRICHEY Did CF even check the water temp? if they did and it's over 30C they are negligent & if they did not, still negligent. My theory of : overheat>pass out>drown looks pretty valid so far
@realalbertan that would be covered in the part of the investigation when the investigator sought out experts in the field of water safety. So yes, they did that and sense there was no negligence shown you can conclude that the water temperature was deemed safe for the event.
Completing the investigation was a legal risk. It could be subpoenaed. Expecting it to contain anything that could potentially show fault would be childish. Large corporations don’t advertise dangerous activities. They rarely admit it behind closed doors. Dave was making changes to that event within a day of the event starting (like start time). There was no time to do a safety review with last-minute changes to events, such as realizing loss of visibility with an even earlier start to offset temperatures. CrossFit HQ simply doesn’t have the expertise in open water swimming to protect the athletes and the only thing good that came out of this is maybe they’ve realized by killing someone that they aren’t as awesome as they think they are. Either way, a safety leader cannot report to Dave. Safety leaders need to be at the top of the tier and report directly to the CEO. That is the whole point. that is the only way there is a kink in the endless circle jerk of leadership in corporations.
Craig - you were measured, effective and forthright in your analysis. I respect you putting this out despite how close you were to the Dukic family and your business relationships in the CF space. This entire ordeal was a tragic (preventable) incident in which CF HQ has now failed a second time to deal with responsibly. The first failure by CF was not having the systems in place to prevent the tragedy from occurring. I believe that this incident and how CF HQ has handled it will be an inflection point for CF from which they will likely not recover. That is tragically unfair to all of the good, honest and hardworking affiliate owners whose job just became harder due to the mismanagement at the top of the brand.
Out of all the recent pods/vlogs/etc. people have put out regarding CrossFit’s update, yours was very well thought out, concise, and objective. Thank You! You’re an absolute legend. Take care.
Regardless of whether one agrees or disagrees with your conclusions, the measured tone on your channel and in the space is to be applauded - as opposed to others that are more self-seeking and hyperbolic.
From the outside looking in, most people/athletes that have dealt with Dave Castro over the years haven’t really had a great experience with him. The athletes have always said he doesn’t listen or act in their best interests when it comes to their health and safety, so to bring in a “safety expert” that will report directly to him will make no difference….he has ignored everyone else regarding safety concerns and will do the same again. The fact that he lied to everyone about Lazars family wanting the games to continue tells you all you need to know…a leopard never changes its spots!
there are a couple times complaints have fallen on deaf ears as there are in any and all businesses. Most don't support the narrative of this version of Castro. Life and the world go on. after 9/11 the NFL went ahead and played their games same as CrossFit, everything was set, planned and paid for etc and they done the right thing for their business. Athletes trained their asses off to be there and compete and ultimately was their choice to continue or not after his death, if it was under false pretenses from Castro stating that the family was ok with it that's a different story, athletes stated he'd want it to go on and done it for him. He died due to negligence, unqualified and untrained staff
@@PainterFRO I remember seeing a video in the summer with Pat Vellner who said lots of people had had issues but they were ignored. So this was inevitable. Also Dave Castro should have stayed fired. I always thought he was a POS
@@PainterFRO it’s impossible to link because there are so many instances. He’s had issues with almost everyone I’m sure if you search dave Castro feud with ….. a bunch will auto populate. Matt Fraser is the one that got the most attention.
I really appreciate you putting yourself out there to share your insight and opinion…especially when you acknowledge that it could impact your access for your career. I’m so bitterly disappointed by this from CrossFit and am expecting that in 5 years time we talk about this moment being their downfall.
The only way it would impact his career is by boosting it. It is a popular opinion to want to crucify crossfit and Dave. I love Craig. I am just saying that he isn't saying anything that people dont already agree with. It would be unpopular of him to say the truth which is that it was a freak accident that no one saw coming.
Props on the deep dive Craig, amazing as always. All of this adds up to the community needing to distance itself from CFHQ. You called it at the end of the video saying that Castro and Faul don't have the community's best interest at heart, and are actively trying to avoid any tangible change to address the tragedy from the summer. Hoping Rogue stands up and takes a larger role in future competitions to give pro's bigger alternatives moving forward.
Thanks for putting this out - you are spot on, all these "corrective actions" are there because it DIDNT happen in 2024... This is so clear that the lack of responsibility and consequences is mindblowing. I do CrossFit recreationally to stay fit - i will not be joining the Open again. I will however continue to work out in my local gym - they are not to blame for the fault of HQ
I respect your decision. For me personally, I'm torn because I want to support my local gym but I refuse to participate in any action that will funnel financial support to CrossFit HQ until there's proper accountability and meaningful change. Sadly, given the recent announcement I will not be going to my local CrossFit unless they de-affiliate or the report (or some sufficient variant of it) is disclosed to us. We were promised transparency and CrossFit HQ has not delivered. Both Don and Dave have been deceitful and I will not stand for it.
Unpopular opinion but I will be joining the open. While I may not support the leadership of the company, there are many who this is their only source of income.
How else do corrective action happen? Something wrong has to happen to fix something. The lack of critical thinking and logic in the community is astounding.
Thank you for supporting Luka and for giving your honest opinion. This sport gave me a lot but Crossfit Inc. took away from us an amazing human, a role model and an icon. Luka said it perfectly.. we can’t stand by a company that does not value human life. Can you please give a shout-out to Belgrade Games competition? More people should see how emotional it was and what Lazar meant to his home crowd and the athletes that came to support this event.
I feel crossfit will survive, but another organized body needs to take over. Rogue is in the top of my list. Something tells me 2025 Crossfit games will have a lot of athletes stepping down in favor of other competitions and that will be the beginning of the end of CFHQ as we know it.
I love this sport, but i think i'm gonna do the open without signing in, like a soft boycott... That's so sad, i think that changed my vision of the games and Crossfit staff, i took also a break Hoping you two are doing good since you were Lazar's friends, much love and huge support to Luca
Appreciate your honesty and breaking it all down as I had missed some of this information. Thats so crap how Dave treated Luka and his family. It’s nice to know you guys were there to support them.
Thank you for this. That post comparison from Luka and Dave Castro’s “apology” was tough! To speak on a family’s wish in a time of tragedy and grief and ignoring their wishes is not what leaders do.
100% on everything. Thank you so much for speaking on this issue. We should all collectively be heard by not partaking in anything by the CrossFit organisation including Games next year.
I agree with you on Dave. The way he handled things absolutely inexcusable. Lying to Luka and Anya, grossly mistreating them and betraying their trust, and then openly lying REPEATEDLY to the entire community is not what a leader does. He has to go or I will not support CrossFit in any way.
The CF open will surely be the barometer of whether there is a life for CF by the amount of people that sign up or the amount of affiliates that renew. At the end of the day CF is a business and the people that own the business and choose to keep DC are hopefully going to fill the effects of their business by having a substantial amount of people boycotting the CF open, as the old saying goes, we need to hit them in their pockets, as Luka alluded too.
One of your best videos. Totally agreed with your assessment. The reality is you don’t need an investigation to see that they completely dropped the ball and it cost someone their life. The lack of accountability by them is insane.
That ambulance comment blew my mind. In the UK we're so used to seeing St John Ambulances at a minimum at even small local town run events that I'd always assumed the Games would have the same and to hear that they're NOW implementing this is insane!
i was just thinking about this yesterday when I saw my old affiliate owner in town, it made me sad she's an amazing human being, wonderful person and creates the single best atmosphere in a gym I've ever experienced, but I said to her at the time and I stand by the fact that I cannot support crossfit in any way and that includes membership to an affiliate. having seen the complete lack of transparency, honesty and acceptance of responsibility crossfit inc displayed I can never give them another penny. and the day my affiliate leaves their affiliate membership I'll rejoin that gym. CrossFit inc is not the be all end all of this way of training or this space.
I understand you reasons. However, affiliates are small businesses, not franchisees of CrossFit. The payment to CrossFit yearly is educational/branding. The CrossFit games are also not CrossFit, the gym you just described is. By being a member of that gym, you help a great person as you described and community at that gym.
just so you know that is complete rubbish. Affiliate fee is $4,500 annually, there are 11,000 paying affiliates which accounts for nearly $50m in revenue a huge amount, that is excluding lvl 1, 2 & 3 certificates for coaches and any supplementary training. Fees paid to the open which all are encouraged by affiliates to participate in. It is all the same organisation and the money is extracted from the individuals hand to crossfits hand in SO MANY WAYS. I don’t have an issue with businesses but when one continually treats their customers like crossfit has it’s just an abusive spouse telling their victim they can’t be happy with someone else. And we all can be, there is functional fitness EVERYWHERE and you don’t need to be an affiliate to generate that vibe
@@colstoun4762 so you’re implying affiliates paying that much money are responsible for murdering a man who was not murdered and this your moral high ground, Taking money away from a good person and their business. Wow what a saint
The facts are pretty simple. All the guidelines from every swimming organisation in America said the water temp was too high for competition, then there wasn’t adequate life guards, they lost an athlete… not for seconds but over an hour and that athlete died. I want accountability and I asked for that from my affiliate, they didn’t provide it… if CrossFit can’t manage to follow safety guidance for their poster annual event, how can you trust them to do it for Joe blogs at any normal affiliate. As a consumer you should demand better… and the best way to do that is with your money.
@@colstoun4762 they had safety protocol in place, it failed. If there were egregious error, there would criminality involved, there wasn’t. It’s filmed and documented, I’m still not finding the reasoning behind taking your money from a small business is helpful with that.
In Portugal, all sports events must have an ambulance on the spot. In the last competition I attended, 3 people fell from the pull-up bar and within 30sec the medical team was there, and within 5-10min they took the athlete to the hospital if needed.
Yep! I agree with you man. While I can't imagine how this must have impacted you personally being a friend to Lazar and Luka, I appreciate how you try to be objective as possible. I understand the legal ramifications of releasing the full investigation results, but in an effort to be transparent and maintain accountability, HQ is in no way doing the right thing here. I am all for CrossFit, but I am also all for justice, honesty, and accountability.
I'm so sorry for your loss! I just saw Buttery Bros video on it. I was a lifeguard for 5 years. It's like no one on the water knew how to scan the water, keep tabs on the athletes, and make a rescue. So sad!
Thanks Craig. It’s actually shocking that CF said they had the family’s blessing to continue. I think the family will probably pursue CF legally and in that case the report may be released. On another note: I never understood why CF have a person who’s the centre of attention each open and games series. Look at the recent rogue invitational: everything focused on the athletes, which is the way it should be.
As a person doing medical support for 20+ years, on the info provided here, America is behind the rest of the world in emergency action plans and medical staffing. An event like swimming needs a paramedic and ambulance with the ability to treat cardiac arrest. What I could see from the footage there was not enough or incompetent paddle rescue craft, not enough, none were following from the back and no high vantage point to see the athletes, direct rescue, etc. We have ocean swims, mile swims, triathlons, all over the world and these tragedies don't occur as safety is first and if inadequate safety, then they're is a "no go", the event will not be permitted to occur. There are platforms dedicated to these practices. I think the UK, Australia, and South Africa are far ahead by leaps and bounds compared to what happened in the US.
Man, I think we all expected this but it’s still disappointing. For me, I feel like a lot of energy (and money) will be shifting to things like Rogue and Hyrox (and others) as a result. People just don’t trust CF, even though on an individual gym level - the people and methodology is great. But that’s not what the masses are seeing/hearing in the news and on social. I love my gym community, I’m here for the long term. But when it comes to inviting new comers in, feels weird to do so at this point.
As an affiliate owner, I think your mislead. 95% of members have no idea of what's even going on. They just love being a part of the CF community and making their lives better and healthier.
@@BrandonLineberrythats also true. From my experience, the really dedicated members (who go multiple times per week, really bring the energy to the gym) also follow the CF news closely. And as they have left the gym or just really dialed down their involvement (which I’ve seen first hand) that indirectly impacts the rest of the community. Every gym is different, but I’ve seen it actuallly impact mine.
@DavidRamosAuthor I can see that for sure. I'd say I'm more "for" CrossFit than some other gym owners/leaders in this scenario and that definitely rubs off onto my members.
Why has Rogue not been called out for their lack of safety when multiple athletes blew their achilles? Why is Crossfit being held to a far higher standard?
@@Ehhhhhsureeee it was two athletes and they immediately course corrected after Haapalainen, the second of the two, was injured. That's the difference. Why bust their balls when they did exactly what they should've done?
I really hope that rogue or another organisation can take the sport away from crossfit Inc.. the rogue invitational was an excellent event. Why not have that as the pinnacle for the athletes in conjunction with the strong man events and maybe even more. "The fitness games" "rogue games". Call it whatever but keep the sport going . Because as it is right now, I definitely won't be doing the open .
Following the sport closely since 2012, Dave has always looked out for himself and only himself. While he has a few great relationships with a number of key athletes, and depicts himself as a victim when he first got let go from crossfit, his removal was always a positive step forward for the sport. I’m sicken that he was brought back in part due to a number of community members crying that he needs to be apart of Crossfit and then something like this resulting because of these decisions
2:08 "... based on privacy and legal considerations." Let's be quite clear here; privacy is a non issue, redacting/anonymising documents is absolutely trivial and done all the time in court procedures. The only important part of that sentence is "legal considerations". Crossfit is effectively saying: We got a man killed with our incompetence and gross negligence and publishing those results in a report would most likely get us sued from here to hell and back so we're going to publish this fucking PR nonsense instead and hope that it's enough. Well it fucking isn't. The family and community deserves to know how a professional organizer could fuck up the most dangerous event they put on this year this bad. Especially with the fucking CEO bragging for months on podcasts about how he had managed to cut a lot of costs from the sport aspect of the organization.
I don't see enough people talking about how Don Faul was bragging for months on podcasts about how he was finding ways to cut costs related to the sport. One example is his interview with Kettlebellandcocktails from, at 14:10 he talks about taking meaningful amounts of money out of the sport side of the business. This is exactly why we need to see the report. I am not trying to start a witch hunt after individuals who were involved that day, but if the management meaningfully reduced the amount they spent on safety this year then that is incredibly damning and something the family and community deserves to know.
"Report to Dave Castro" . That like the Tom Cruise story, of him changing Safety Officers until he got an officer that allowed him to carry out the stunt. It's Davies fault that the workout began with the run, instead of beginning with the swim.
Craig, if no one told YOU OR JAS that you are legends today - YOU'RE BOTH LEGENDS! Thank you for sharing this information and being honest. I can only imagine how tough it all must be with so many conflicting emotions. We don't know the right way forward, so keep doing what feels right to you for however long you have to. Love to you both and the pups from (near) Toronto!
Nice job Craig. I didn’t expect anything less from CrossFit HQ, especially being guided by a Board of Directors. Personally, I am surprised there isn’t someone already in a “leadership” role for athlete safety and applying guidelines adhering to “athlete safety”. Being that this person will report to Dave Castro isn’t so much of a surprise, however, Dave Castro needs to be removed from the Games Programming. Castro is the Director of the Games who should be overseeing this detail, not providing it. Adrian Bozman has filled this role and done so with fusing CrossFit’s Methodology and Sport. Conclusion - Dave Castro has proven that he cannot leverage his duties without micromanaging and his role should be structured to be the “Director” without personal integration.
Mitch Hooper nailed it - this is an opportunity for someone from the community to start a company and a movement that CrossFit could have and should have been. A company that will provide opportunities for fitness athletes to compete and thrive, but will also care about them and treat them like humans beings.
@ right, perhaps this is naive wishful thinking, but a cooperative model certainly comes to mind. Maybe crowdfunding or a similar model. All I can say for certain is that I am done with CrossFit forever. And I’m pretty sure I’m not alone.
After this fiasco I can't follow anymore. I will look up the court report. You are absolutely correct. I truly believe they are digging there own grave. Bye crossfit.
My 10 pence. I think a lot of the other "rival" competitions like Rogue, Wodapalooza will take active steps to be overtly safer or have more safely elements in place than the CF games and season. If that's the case then its possible that a lot of athletes will vote with their feet and focus on those event rather than CFG. CF is just a form of functional fitness. One provider and stage in a ecosystem of training approaches and competitions. People don't need CFHQ to do Crossfit or Functional fitness. If CFHQ and people like Sevan just blow this off and basically mock it, your going to see a lot of people move away from the CFG and season. Especially outside mainland USA.
Dave Castro should have been gone when Glassman was. This stinks of a cover-up and "if we ignore it it'll go away". I know this is personal for you, but it's good to see you keeping your distance and I hope that some athletes do as well to prevent them going back to business as usual and just pretending it didn't happen
Utill CF moves to be more open, I think not singhing up for the Open is a good way to push back. So many CF athletes are either looking at or already committed to doing HYROX, and other events will start pushing into this space. CF are not too big to be replaced, and need to change to stay relevant.
My opinion on the topic is that Crossfit truly did not care about what happened that day in the tragic event because if they did, they would have stopped the games to ensure a safe and competitive environment for their athletes competing they selfishly continued the games in pursuit of monetary gains Disregarding the safety issues that led to the tragic event. Crossfit is the biggest hypocritical organization I’ve ever seen and conducted in a long time. It claims to be about the community and the people, but yet they selfishly put themselves first after tragic event and said we have to make money forget that because any other organization after something tragic as that was ceased all operations until the problem was found and fixed
Thanks for actually giving the transparency that it is needed. Hope this is going to shift for something better in future. Maybe hopefully we will see in future HSTL Event, who knows.
Craig hit the nail on the head. The CrossFit organisation is not fit to run this sport nor up to the standards of the crossfit community. Thankfully many local / regional organisations, high quality unaffiliated gyms and others do live up to the values and expectations of the community and provide options for those who want to train and compete without having to support CrossFit.
Nice video mate! Always appreciate your content! Just checking, did you say “minimize” rather than “maximize” on purpose😆. Minimize our continued commitment to safety
This doesn't surprise me. Ever since they did Murph in 100 degree weather and the large number of athletes who suffered from heat exhaustion and hear stroke, I've been side eyeing their "safety" protocals. Also, it makes me wonder if that's why they hold the Games in the states they've chosen. Not just because of space and cost, but also lack of regulation 👀. NYC and Cali is highly regulated for a reason. Finally, the safety council doesn't mean anything since Dave is in charge. He literally does not have to listen and has shown to not be trustworthy with athletes safety. It's so disrespectful to the affected athletes family, with allowing Castro to remain in his position.
Just from this report the whole thing CROSSFIT IS A SHAME like you said Ireland/ UK if you are running anything pushing people to the limit sport events of any kind you HAVE TO HAVE all this is place there is no way round NOT having it in place......this is a complete mess and I agree Luca statement 100000% he is right it's about money power and to hell with people IMO Steph 🇮🇪 Ireland
I admire Craig's calmness and respect his POV as he is in the space and knows behind the scenes' information. Legend for standing up. This was hard to watch as we found out that the pinnacle competition of the year, the crossfit games (the World Fucking Championship) were done so poorly and at the amateur level that many of the local comps would be ashamed of. The safety precautions were just ridiculously underrated. I can't comprehend HOW this was even possible to fuck up safety so much. And now finding out they are adding basic safety points (I mean even elementary kids would come up with it) and personal to the new protocols shows how unprofessional CF HQ is. Bunch of egos with no knowledge running the company. That's fucking unbelievable. Also the whole report from this investigation results is at the level of an elementary kid who wants to cover some shit up to the parents. You can see through that shit right away and know it has more holes than emmental cheese even before you look into it (which we are not allowed to). Which brings me to the last point about transparency and the last nail in the coffin alongside with lies from castro. This is unacceptable for the company to move forward like this without any accountability and consequences. I like CF methodology, gyms, wods and people in it, but I really hope CF as a brand and company burns into ashes and we get something new from it without this bullshiting around.
I'm disappointed in CrossFit HQ. Even without the release, which could have been redacted and disseminated, I had the same reactions as Craig. I'm at a loss why CF doesn't have multiple ambulance and medical/rescue personnel onsite for all events. The opportunity for injury and/or illness continually exists. I'm guessing that a lot of the HQ staff has been with the organization since it was just a backyard bragging rights event. They became complacent and now that it's an international brand and happening, they haven't progressed their thinking with growth of the sport.
Good comments, Craig. I’ve been following you guys for several years now. Participated in CF at registered boxes for about 8 years & been away from it for about 5 years now. I work out in my garage & spend more time practicing boxing. I think CF HQ’s answer on the tragic incident was very poor.
Well said Craig and thank you to you and Jas for supporting Luka and his family. I’ve quit my affiliate and won’t be giving any more $$ to CrossFit Inc. I met you and Jas at the semi-final in Berlin last year and like how genuine and positive your content is. Keep up the great work! 💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻
Thank-you for doing this. I've thought for a long time that if DC had any shred of integrity or morals he would have resigned immediately after the games. This is disappointing but sadly unsurprising.
Thanks for this, its always really good to hear the opinion of someone like yourself who is obviously so involved in the space. My takeaway from this is that for too long, the games seems to have been run by people saying "nah, should be fine". As you say, using similar expereinces, working in engineering, every failure scenario has to be considered and has a score rating based on how damaging it could be, e.g. 10 being death (look up a dfmea/control plan if you're that interested). How crossfit didnt have anything like this in place is ludicrous. Personally, i wont be paying my open fee going forward, i feel like that is of the little influence i think i have in this. If i could, i'd move to a weightlifting gym, but there's none in my area. This seems like a complete brush aside of what happened...but see you for the open 2025, right?!
The funniest thing is the mention in the statement of all the experience in the crossfit community, including special forces operatives (retd?) like it was a "GOOD THING" when this whole clusterwhatsit falls firmly at the feet of a retired special forces operative, who openly admitted lying through his teeth almost immediately after the tragedy. Whatever happened to the US Services 'Code of Honour' ?
I work as a data privacy officer in corporate world. I report findings to the board, but do not work for the board. That is the only was I can remain effective in my role
Well done on speaking out about this. I don't do crossfit, but I have followed closely for a long-time (thanks to you, Jas, Mars and Heber). I was sadly watching the event live and it was quite simply, a completely avoidable tragedy. The fact it happened was appalling enough, but the response or lack of, has been sickening. I have completely lost interest in following crossfit since. That's no shade on the athletes or content creators, but it has completely tainted it for me. I continue to follow and support everything you guys do, but without significant fallout at CFHQ, I can't support an organisation that shows no regard for its' competitors and fans.
💯 Agree with you! Why does Castro remind me of President Snow from Hunger Games, even prior to this year, he gives those vibes and I’ve now been proven right, sadly 💔
Thank you for such a thoughtful video without a bunch of conjecture or inferences. I completely agree with the sentiment you and most of the community have. This announcement seems to demonstrate the pervasive toxic culture within CrossFit LLC. I’m curious if the PFAA has been building a legal case to bring forward. So much to be seen in the coming weeks.
Thanks for sharing the information and giving your take on it. I have found this video to be hard to waych because of all the cuts. Some parts you have a cut after every sentence...
This is super annoying to me because Dave is Navy vet and as a Navy vet myself I’m familiar with the same safety protocols that goes in to a training environment that he is and the fact CF couldn’t meet the basic of safety protocols and Daves propensity to ignore safety concerns is counter to training. A safety officer should have unilateral control over anything that is a safety concern. The fact that no safety swimmers were used, and no ambulance on sit is crazy to me
I haven't done the open in for the past few years. In recent years, it has felt less and less like it did when I started CrossFit (2012). They raised costs on Box owners and I really struggle to see what they have given the Box owners in return. Its a shame really. I will say it is a small miracle that an accident like this didn't happen sooner given the open water events that they have had in the past. Quite frankly I never saw the swimming events as real CrossFit events. Swimming just isn't a part of a normal CrossFit box's operations.
I agree on everything but your argument "Swimming just isn't a part of a normal CrossFit box's operations". Games is not to be compared with "normal CrossFit box's operations". It is its own separate extreme version of CrossFit and has just partly to do with what's going on in the boxes.
I’ve worked in aviation, the airworthiness team (quality management) usually doesn’t report into operations. It reports into the CEO to insure integrity and give it the voice it needs to have. The safety leader shouldn’t report into Castro, this goes against proper safety management. They should benchmark safety management models
I see the direct connection between CrossFit and Bikram Yoga. Bikram was found out to be a despicable human just like the owners, leaders, and Dave Castro are. I hope that someone else starts a new "Hot Yoga" company to compete and ultimately burn CrossFit to the ground just like how Bikram Yoga is now a shell of the former company. The CrossFit community is amazing and I hope they can all find a new brand to stand behind going forward that actually cares about the lives of their members.
Crossfit athletes need to take notes from other sporting agencies. If they want changes and things to be done differently, from the PFAA and the athletes on that committee and the athlete committee that is formed from the corporate board, must sit down and decide what needs to change for the athletes and then present it to the corporate team. An agreement needs to be made between all parties so that the athletes feel comfortable competing. All of them need to stand up and use their voice together. If it's done together, than the voice is louder. I find it hard to believe that corporate won't listen then.
Having done a fair few OWS events and triathlons, I can say that there's undeniably ways to make OWS events safe for hundreds of competitors let alone the tens that are usually in a CrossFit Games event.
Just looking at the comparison between crossfit safety and strongman safety is obvious any sport at its top is extreme and can be dangerous. Strongman takes as many precautions to make sure their equipment and athletes are ready for competition. The lack off in crossfit is insane
All about them but nothing to clarify this tragedy!!! I will fallow the methodology till my last days but CrossFit as company has let everyone down!!!! Time to end the vicious cycle!
CrossFit should avoid open water swimming events as safety concerns in those events carry risks that are many times higher than other CrossFit WODs. As a triathlete, I’ve seen how Ironman manages the safety elements of open water swimming and it’s very different than what we saw here.
Look at how Ironman has evolved their open water swimming. 2,000+ amateurs in the water at one time can be done safely. CF can support 80 professional athletes if they care and had the competence.
In a way, omitting the information about the investigation is an admission of guilt. I the information gathered in the investigation were good for CrossFit in a way that absolved them of guilt, they would have released the full investigation report. Not surprised by the lack of accountability by their part.
Redacting personal information from the report and/or releasing specific portions from the report would show CrossFit taking accountability and providing transparency. It’s completely reasonable to keep employeees information private, but even a summary provided to the community would go a long way.
Agreed
💯
@@TeamRICHEY Did CF even check the water temp? if they did and it's over 30C they are negligent & if they did not, still negligent. My theory of : overheat>pass out>drown looks pretty valid so far
@realalbertan that would be covered in the part of the investigation when the investigator sought out experts in the field of water safety. So yes, they did that and sense there was no negligence shown you can conclude that the water temperature was deemed safe for the event.
Completing the investigation was a legal risk. It could be subpoenaed. Expecting it to contain anything that could potentially show fault would be childish. Large corporations don’t advertise dangerous activities. They rarely admit it behind closed doors.
Dave was making changes to that event within a day of the event starting (like start time). There was no time to do a safety review with last-minute changes to events, such as realizing loss of visibility with an even earlier start to offset temperatures. CrossFit HQ simply doesn’t have the expertise in open water swimming to protect the athletes and the only thing good that came out of this is maybe they’ve realized by killing someone that they aren’t as awesome as they think they are. Either way, a safety leader cannot report to Dave. Safety leaders need to be at the top of the tier and report directly to the CEO. That is the whole point. that is the only way there is a kink in the endless circle jerk of leadership in corporations.
Thanks for speaking out and supporting Dukic family with this video. ❤
The CrossFit and games we all fell in love with is never coming back as long as private equity and share holders profits are involved.
Craig - you were measured, effective and forthright in your analysis. I respect you putting this out despite how close you were to the Dukic family and your business relationships in the CF space.
This entire ordeal was a tragic (preventable) incident in which CF HQ has now failed a second time to deal with responsibly. The first failure by CF was not having the systems in place to prevent the tragedy from occurring. I believe that this incident and how CF HQ has handled it will be an inflection point for CF from which they will likely not recover. That is tragically unfair to all of the good, honest and hardworking affiliate owners whose job just became harder due to the mismanagement at the top of the brand.
Out of all the recent pods/vlogs/etc. people have put out regarding CrossFit’s update, yours was very well thought out, concise, and objective. Thank You! You’re an absolute legend. Take care.
We love and appreciate you Craig. Thank you for this.
*I
Regardless of whether one agrees or disagrees with your conclusions, the measured tone on your channel and in the space is to be applauded - as opposed to others that are more self-seeking and hyperbolic.
Thanks Craig and Jaz. This is the source and commentary I trust. I feel like you are actually saying what you believe and it’s logical and makes sense
From the outside looking in, most people/athletes that have dealt with Dave Castro over the years haven’t really had a great experience with him. The athletes have always said he doesn’t listen or act in their best interests when it comes to their health and safety, so to bring in a “safety expert” that will report directly to him will make no difference….he has ignored everyone else regarding safety concerns and will do the same again. The fact that he lied to everyone about Lazars family wanting the games to continue tells you all you need to know…a leopard never changes its spots!
Can you link me to where athletes have said this in the past before the last CrossFit games?
When someone tells you who they are; believe them.
there are a couple times complaints have fallen on deaf ears as there are in any and all businesses. Most don't support the narrative of this version of Castro. Life and the world go on. after 9/11 the NFL went ahead and played their games same as CrossFit, everything was set, planned and paid for etc and they done the right thing for their business. Athletes trained their asses off to be there and compete and ultimately was their choice to continue or not after his death, if it was under false pretenses from Castro stating that the family was ok with it that's a different story, athletes stated he'd want it to go on and done it for him. He died due to negligence, unqualified and untrained staff
@@PainterFRO I remember seeing a video in the summer with Pat Vellner who said lots of people had had issues but they were ignored. So this was inevitable. Also Dave Castro should have stayed fired. I always thought he was a POS
@@PainterFRO it’s impossible to link because there are so many instances. He’s had issues with almost everyone I’m sure if you search dave Castro feud with ….. a bunch will auto populate. Matt Fraser is the one that got the most attention.
I really appreciate you putting yourself out there to share your insight and opinion…especially when you acknowledge that it could impact your access for your career.
I’m so bitterly disappointed by this from CrossFit and am expecting that in 5 years time we talk about this moment being their downfall.
The only way it would impact his career is by boosting it. It is a popular opinion to want to crucify crossfit and Dave. I love Craig. I am just saying that he isn't saying anything that people dont already agree with. It would be unpopular of him to say the truth which is that it was a freak accident that no one saw coming.
@ makes him unpopular to Crossfit and people who controls access for him not the general Crossfit community was my thoughts.
The downfall of CrossFit happened a few years ago unfortunately.. IYKYK
@@bethanewright well IMO I dont think craig would return to crossfit even if they wanted him to. Which I think is a mistake. Crossfit will continue
@@Ehhhhhsureeee agree to disagree they seem to be making the worst decisions possible and I really think this feels like the beginning of the end
Props on the deep dive Craig, amazing as always. All of this adds up to the community needing to distance itself from CFHQ. You called it at the end of the video saying that Castro and Faul don't have the community's best interest at heart, and are actively trying to avoid any tangible change to address the tragedy from the summer. Hoping Rogue stands up and takes a larger role in future competitions to give pro's bigger alternatives moving forward.
I already prefer the Rogue Invitational over the CFG and if Rogue stepped up to provide more competition that would be awesome.
Thanks for putting this out - you are spot on, all these "corrective actions" are there because it DIDNT happen in 2024... This is so clear that the lack of responsibility and consequences is mindblowing. I do CrossFit recreationally to stay fit - i will not be joining the Open again. I will however continue to work out in my local gym - they are not to blame for the fault of HQ
Same. It's tough, Crossfit (the sport) is great, but hard to balance that against the brand - particularly with Castro's lying and lack of care.
I respect your decision. For me personally, I'm torn because I want to support my local gym but I refuse to participate in any action that will funnel financial support to CrossFit HQ until there's proper accountability and meaningful change. Sadly, given the recent announcement I will not be going to my local CrossFit unless they de-affiliate or the report (or some sufficient variant of it) is disclosed to us.
We were promised transparency and CrossFit HQ has not delivered. Both Don and Dave have been deceitful and I will not stand for it.
Unpopular opinion but I will be joining the open. While I may not support the leadership of the company, there are many who this is their only source of income.
How else do corrective action happen? Something wrong has to happen to fix something. The lack of critical thinking and logic in the community is astounding.
Thank you for supporting Luka and for giving your honest opinion. This sport gave me a lot but Crossfit Inc. took away from us an amazing human, a role model and an icon. Luka said it perfectly.. we can’t stand by a company that does not value human life.
Can you please give a shout-out to Belgrade Games competition? More people should see how emotional it was and what Lazar meant to his home crowd and the athletes that came to support this event.
Aka updating legal liability waiver... that's what will change
I feel crossfit will survive, but another organized body needs to take over. Rogue is in the top of my list. Something tells me 2025 Crossfit games will have a lot of athletes stepping down in favor of other competitions and that will be the beginning of the end of CFHQ as we know it.
I love this sport, but i think i'm gonna do the open without signing in, like a soft boycott...
That's so sad, i think that changed my vision of the games and Crossfit staff, i took also a break
Hoping you two are doing good since you were Lazar's friends, much love and huge support to Luca
Appreciate your honesty and breaking it all down as I had missed some of this information. Thats so crap how Dave treated Luka and his family. It’s nice to know you guys were there to support them.
Thank you for this. That post comparison from Luka and Dave Castro’s “apology” was tough! To speak on a family’s wish in a time of tragedy and grief and ignoring their wishes is not what leaders do.
100% on everything. Thank you so much for speaking on this issue. We should all collectively be heard by not partaking in anything by the CrossFit organisation including Games next year.
I agree with you on Dave. The way he handled things absolutely inexcusable. Lying to Luka and Anya, grossly mistreating them and betraying their trust, and then openly lying REPEATEDLY to the entire community is not what a leader does. He has to go or I will not support CrossFit in any way.
The CF open will surely be the barometer of whether there is a life for CF by the amount of people that sign up or the amount of affiliates that renew. At the end of the day CF is a business and the people that own the business and choose to keep DC are hopefully going to fill the effects of their business by having a substantial amount of people boycotting the CF open, as the old saying goes, we need to hit them in their pockets, as Luka alluded too.
Well spoken. Glad to see someone not hold backing knowing most of their community comes from that side. Way to stand on your morals. Thank you.
One of your best videos. Totally agreed with your assessment. The reality is you don’t need an investigation to see that they completely dropped the ball and it cost someone their life. The lack of accountability by them is insane.
That ambulance comment blew my mind. In the UK we're so used to seeing St John Ambulances at a minimum at even small local town run events that I'd always assumed the Games would have the same and to hear that they're NOW implementing this is insane!
Thank you Craig for speaking up!
i was just thinking about this yesterday when I saw my old affiliate owner in town, it made me sad she's an amazing human being, wonderful person and creates the single best atmosphere in a gym I've ever experienced, but I said to her at the time and I stand by the fact that I cannot support crossfit in any way and that includes membership to an affiliate. having seen the complete lack of transparency, honesty and acceptance of responsibility crossfit inc displayed I can never give them another penny. and the day my affiliate leaves their affiliate membership I'll rejoin that gym. CrossFit inc is not the be all end all of this way of training or this space.
I understand you reasons. However, affiliates are small businesses, not franchisees of CrossFit. The payment to CrossFit yearly is educational/branding. The CrossFit games are also not CrossFit, the gym you just described is. By being a member of that gym, you help a great person as you described and community at that gym.
just so you know that is complete rubbish. Affiliate fee is $4,500 annually, there are 11,000 paying affiliates which accounts for nearly $50m in revenue a huge amount, that is excluding lvl 1, 2 & 3 certificates for coaches and any supplementary training. Fees paid to the open which all are encouraged by affiliates to participate in. It is all the same organisation and the money is extracted from the individuals hand to crossfits hand in SO MANY WAYS. I don’t have an issue with businesses but when one continually treats their customers like crossfit has it’s just an abusive spouse telling their victim they can’t be happy with someone else. And we all can be, there is functional fitness EVERYWHERE and you don’t need to be an affiliate to generate that vibe
@@colstoun4762 so you’re implying affiliates paying that much money are responsible for murdering a man who was not murdered and this your moral high ground,
Taking money away from a good person and their business. Wow what a saint
The facts are pretty simple. All the guidelines from every swimming organisation in America said the water temp was too high for competition, then there wasn’t adequate life guards, they lost an athlete… not for seconds but over an hour and that athlete died. I want accountability and I asked for that from my affiliate, they didn’t provide it… if CrossFit can’t manage to follow safety guidance for their poster annual event, how can you trust them to do it for Joe blogs at any normal affiliate. As a consumer you should demand better… and the best way to do that is with your money.
@@colstoun4762 they had safety protocol in place, it failed. If there were egregious error, there would criminality involved, there wasn’t. It’s filmed and documented, I’m still not finding the reasoning behind taking your money from a small business is helpful with that.
In Portugal, all sports events must have an ambulance on the spot. In the last competition I attended, 3 people fell from the pull-up bar and within 30sec the medical team was there, and within 5-10min they took the athlete to the hospital if needed.
Yep! I agree with you man. While I can't imagine how this must have impacted you personally being a friend to Lazar and Luka, I appreciate how you try to be objective as possible. I understand the legal ramifications of releasing the full investigation results, but in an effort to be transparent and maintain accountability, HQ is in no way doing the right thing here. I am all for CrossFit, but I am also all for justice, honesty, and accountability.
I'm so sorry for your loss! I just saw Buttery Bros video on it. I was a lifeguard for 5 years. It's like no one on the water knew how to scan the water, keep tabs on the athletes, and make a rescue. So sad!
Good points and I agree with all that you have said....also love the love the daily cardio sessions!
I'm no event expert but there is nothing happening at CrossFit at the moment that is indicative of actual good leadership.
Craig, you are a LEGEND. They put money before truth indeed.
Thanks Craig. It’s actually shocking that CF said they had the family’s blessing to continue. I think the family will probably pursue CF legally and in that case the report may be released.
On another note: I never understood why CF have a person who’s the centre of attention each open and games series. Look at the recent rogue invitational: everything focused on the athletes, which is the way it should be.
As a person doing medical support for 20+ years, on the info provided here, America is behind the rest of the world in emergency action plans and medical staffing. An event like swimming needs a paramedic and ambulance with the ability to treat cardiac arrest.
What I could see from the footage there was not enough or incompetent paddle rescue craft, not enough, none were following from the back and no high vantage point to see the athletes, direct rescue, etc.
We have ocean swims, mile swims, triathlons, all over the world and these tragedies don't occur as safety is first and if inadequate safety, then they're is a "no go", the event will not be permitted to occur.
There are platforms dedicated to these practices. I think the UK, Australia, and South Africa are far ahead by leaps and bounds compared to what happened in the US.
Man, I think we all expected this but it’s still disappointing. For me, I feel like a lot of energy (and money) will be shifting to things like Rogue and Hyrox (and others) as a result. People just don’t trust CF, even though on an individual gym level - the people and methodology is great. But that’s not what the masses are seeing/hearing in the news and on social. I love my gym community, I’m here for the long term. But when it comes to inviting new comers in, feels weird to do so at this point.
As an affiliate owner, I think your mislead. 95% of members have no idea of what's even going on. They just love being a part of the CF community and making their lives better and healthier.
@@BrandonLineberrythats also true. From my experience, the really dedicated members (who go multiple times per week, really bring the energy to the gym) also follow the CF news closely. And as they have left the gym or just really dialed down their involvement (which I’ve seen first hand) that indirectly impacts the rest of the community. Every gym is different, but I’ve seen it actuallly impact mine.
@DavidRamosAuthor I can see that for sure. I'd say I'm more "for" CrossFit than some other gym owners/leaders in this scenario and that definitely rubs off onto my members.
Why has Rogue not been called out for their lack of safety when multiple athletes blew their achilles? Why is Crossfit being held to a far higher standard?
@@Ehhhhhsureeee it was two athletes and they immediately course corrected after Haapalainen, the second of the two, was injured. That's the difference. Why bust their balls when they did exactly what they should've done?
I really hope that rogue or another organisation can take the sport away from crossfit Inc.. the rogue invitational was an excellent event. Why not have that as the pinnacle for the athletes in conjunction with the strong man events and maybe even more. "The fitness games" "rogue games". Call it whatever but keep the sport going . Because as it is right now, I definitely won't be doing the open .
So courageous and right. Castro was unliked already and continued to show his truest colours during this tradegy.
Following the sport closely since 2012, Dave has always looked out for himself and only himself. While he has a few great relationships with a number of key athletes, and depicts himself as a victim when he first got let go from crossfit, his removal was always a positive step forward for the sport. I’m sicken that he was brought back in part due to a number of community members crying that he needs to be apart of Crossfit and then something like this resulting because of these decisions
Really appreciate your honesty and candor, Rich.
This is great Craig! Thank you!!
2:08 "... based on privacy and legal considerations."
Let's be quite clear here; privacy is a non issue, redacting/anonymising documents is absolutely trivial and done all the time in court procedures. The only important part of that sentence is "legal considerations".
Crossfit is effectively saying: We got a man killed with our incompetence and gross negligence and publishing those results in a report would most likely get us sued from here to hell and back so we're going to publish this fucking PR nonsense instead and hope that it's enough.
Well it fucking isn't. The family and community deserves to know how a professional organizer could fuck up the most dangerous event they put on this year this bad. Especially with the fucking CEO bragging for months on podcasts about how he had managed to cut a lot of costs from the sport aspect of the organization.
I don't see enough people talking about how Don Faul was bragging for months on podcasts about how he was finding ways to cut costs related to the sport. One example is his interview with Kettlebellandcocktails from, at 14:10 he talks about taking meaningful amounts of money out of the sport side of the business.
This is exactly why we need to see the report. I am not trying to start a witch hunt after individuals who were involved that day, but if the management meaningfully reduced the amount they spent on safety this year then that is incredibly damning and something the family and community deserves to know.
"Report to Dave Castro" . That like the Tom Cruise story, of him changing Safety Officers until he got an officer that allowed him to carry out the stunt. It's Davies fault that the workout began with the run, instead of beginning with the swim.
Craig, if no one told YOU OR JAS that you are legends today - YOU'RE BOTH LEGENDS! Thank you for sharing this information and being honest. I can only imagine how tough it all must be with so many conflicting emotions. We don't know the right way forward, so keep doing what feels right to you for however long you have to. Love to you both and the pups from (near) Toronto!
Nice job Craig. I didn’t expect anything less from CrossFit HQ, especially being guided by a Board of Directors. Personally, I am surprised there isn’t someone already in a “leadership” role for athlete safety and applying guidelines adhering to “athlete safety”. Being that this person will report to Dave Castro isn’t so much of a surprise, however, Dave Castro needs to be removed from the Games Programming. Castro is the Director of the Games who should be overseeing this detail, not providing it. Adrian Bozman has filled this role and done so with fusing CrossFit’s Methodology and Sport. Conclusion - Dave Castro has proven that he cannot leverage his duties without micromanaging and his role should be structured to be the “Director” without personal integration.
Well said! Thank you
Mitch Hooper nailed it - this is an opportunity for someone from the community to start a company and a movement that CrossFit could have and should have been. A company that will provide opportunities for fitness athletes to compete and thrive, but will also care about them and treat them like humans beings.
That takes a lot of money so it’ll have to be a company with a lot of backing investment wise if it were to happen
@ right, perhaps this is naive wishful thinking, but a cooperative model certainly comes to mind. Maybe crowdfunding or a similar model. All I can say for certain is that I am done with CrossFit forever. And I’m pretty sure I’m not alone.
Welcome to the world of private equity ladies and gentlemen.
dang luca’s comment says it all… what a shame… CrossFit has totally lost its grassroots feel
After this fiasco I can't follow anymore. I will look up the court report. You are absolutely correct. I truly believe they are digging there own grave. Bye crossfit.
My 10 pence. I think a lot of the other "rival" competitions like Rogue, Wodapalooza will take active steps to be overtly safer or have more safely elements in place than the CF games and season. If that's the case then its possible that a lot of athletes will vote with their feet and focus on those event rather than CFG. CF is just a form of functional fitness. One provider and stage in a ecosystem of training approaches and competitions. People don't need CFHQ to do Crossfit or Functional fitness. If CFHQ and people like Sevan just blow this off and basically mock it, your going to see a lot of people move away from the CFG and season. Especially outside mainland USA.
How so? Not having open water events?
Thank you Craig.
I have nothing to add but to say I'm so sorry for your loss. Don't stop what you're doing no matter what.
Dave Castro should have been gone when Glassman was. This stinks of a cover-up and "if we ignore it it'll go away".
I know this is personal for you, but it's good to see you keeping your distance and I hope that some athletes do as well to prevent them going back to business as usual and just pretending it didn't happen
Utill CF moves to be more open, I think not singhing up for the Open is a good way to push back. So many CF athletes are either looking at or already committed to doing HYROX, and other events will start pushing into this space. CF are not too big to be replaced, and need to change to stay relevant.
My opinion on the topic is that Crossfit truly did not care about what happened that day in the tragic event because if they did, they would have stopped the games to ensure a safe and competitive environment for their athletes competing they selfishly continued the games in pursuit of monetary gains Disregarding the safety issues that led to the tragic event. Crossfit is the biggest hypocritical organization I’ve ever seen and conducted in a long time. It claims to be about the community and the people, but yet they selfishly put themselves first after tragic event and said we have to make money forget that because any other organization after something tragic as that was ceased all operations until the problem was found and fixed
There are ambulances on site at every high school football game across the US. How did they not have on eon site at the Games??
Spot on as always Craig.
Thanks for actually giving the transparency that it is needed. Hope this is going to shift for something better in future.
Maybe hopefully we will see in future HSTL Event, who knows.
Craig hit the nail on the head. The CrossFit organisation is not fit to run this sport nor up to the standards of the crossfit community. Thankfully many local / regional organisations, high quality unaffiliated gyms and others do live up to the values and expectations of the community and provide options for those who want to train and compete without having to support CrossFit.
Nice video mate! Always appreciate your content! Just checking, did you say “minimize” rather than “maximize” on purpose😆. Minimize our continued commitment to safety
This doesn't surprise me. Ever since they did Murph in 100 degree weather and the large number of athletes who suffered from heat exhaustion and hear stroke, I've been side eyeing their "safety" protocals. Also, it makes me wonder if that's why they hold the Games in the states they've chosen. Not just because of space and cost, but also lack of regulation 👀. NYC and Cali is highly regulated for a reason. Finally, the safety council doesn't mean anything since Dave is in charge. He literally does not have to listen and has shown to not be trustworthy with athletes safety. It's so disrespectful to the affected athletes family, with allowing Castro to remain in his position.
Just from this report the whole thing CROSSFIT IS A SHAME like you said Ireland/ UK if you are running anything pushing people to the limit sport events of any kind you HAVE TO HAVE all this is place there is no way round NOT having it in place......this is a complete mess and I agree Luca statement 100000% he is right it's about money power and to hell with people IMO
Steph 🇮🇪 Ireland
I admire Craig's calmness and respect his POV as he is in the space and knows behind the scenes' information. Legend for standing up.
This was hard to watch as we found out that the pinnacle competition of the year, the crossfit games (the World Fucking Championship) were done so poorly and at the amateur level that many of the local comps would be ashamed of.
The safety precautions were just ridiculously underrated. I can't comprehend HOW this was even possible to fuck up safety so much. And now finding out they are adding basic safety points (I mean even elementary kids would come up with it) and personal to the new protocols shows how unprofessional CF HQ is. Bunch of egos with no knowledge running the company. That's fucking unbelievable.
Also the whole report from this investigation results is at the level of an elementary kid who wants to cover some shit up to the parents. You can see through that shit right away and know it has more holes than emmental cheese even before you look into it (which we are not allowed to).
Which brings me to the last point about transparency and the last nail in the coffin alongside with lies from castro. This is unacceptable for the company to move forward like this without any accountability and consequences.
I like CF methodology, gyms, wods and people in it, but I really hope CF as a brand and company burns into ashes and we get something new from it without this bullshiting around.
I'm disappointed in CrossFit HQ. Even without the release, which could have been redacted and disseminated, I had the same reactions as Craig. I'm at a loss why CF doesn't have multiple ambulance and medical/rescue personnel onsite for all events. The opportunity for injury and/or illness continually exists. I'm guessing that a lot of the HQ staff has been with the organization since it was just a backyard bragging rights event. They became complacent and now that it's an international brand and happening, they haven't progressed their thinking with growth of the sport.
Good comments, Craig. I’ve been following you guys for several years now. Participated in CF at registered boxes for about 8 years & been away from it for about 5 years now. I work out in my garage & spend more time practicing boxing. I think CF HQ’s answer on the tragic incident was very poor.
Well said Craig and thank you to you and Jas for supporting Luka and his family. I’ve quit my affiliate and won’t be giving any more $$ to CrossFit Inc. I met you and Jas at the semi-final in Berlin last year and like how genuine and positive your content is. Keep up the great work! 💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻
Thank-you for doing this. I've thought for a long time that if DC had any shred of integrity or morals he would have resigned immediately after the games. This is disappointing but sadly unsurprising.
Thanks Craig for putting this out. It’s all sad to see, I do not plan to sign up for the open.
Thanks for this, its always really good to hear the opinion of someone like yourself who is obviously so involved in the space.
My takeaway from this is that for too long, the games seems to have been run by people saying "nah, should be fine". As you say, using similar expereinces, working in engineering, every failure scenario has to be considered and has a score rating based on how damaging it could be, e.g. 10 being death (look up a dfmea/control plan if you're that interested).
How crossfit didnt have anything like this in place is ludicrous.
Personally, i wont be paying my open fee going forward, i feel like that is of the little influence i think i have in this. If i could, i'd move to a weightlifting gym, but there's none in my area.
This seems like a complete brush aside of what happened...but see you for the open 2025, right?!
Wasn’t expecting anything more from them. This was expected from day 1. I know you guys knew it too and feel the same way.
Thing is if this was Tia or Matt. It would of been handled differently
The funniest thing is the mention in the statement of all the experience in the crossfit community, including special forces operatives (retd?) like it was a "GOOD THING" when this whole clusterwhatsit falls firmly at the feet of a retired special forces operative, who openly admitted lying through his teeth almost immediately after the tragedy. Whatever happened to the US Services 'Code of Honour' ?
I'm a veteran and not every soldier, sailor, Marine or airman is honorable. Not even Spec Ops.
"... is a little bit concerning." YES. SIR.
I work as a data privacy officer in corporate world. I report findings to the board, but do not work for the board. That is the only was I can remain effective in my role
This is corporate BS.
The community needs to sack off the trademark and rebrand the sport.
Well done on speaking out about this. I don't do crossfit, but I have followed closely for a long-time (thanks to you, Jas, Mars and Heber). I was sadly watching the event live and it was quite simply, a completely avoidable tragedy. The fact it happened was appalling enough, but the response or lack of, has been sickening. I have completely lost interest in following crossfit since. That's no shade on the athletes or content creators, but it has completely tainted it for me. I continue to follow and support everything you guys do, but without significant fallout at CFHQ, I can't support an organisation that shows no regard for its' competitors and fans.
💯 Agree with you! Why does Castro remind me of President Snow from Hunger Games, even prior to this year, he gives those vibes and I’ve now been proven right, sadly 💔
Thank you for such a thoughtful video without a bunch of conjecture or inferences. I completely agree with the sentiment you and most of the community have. This announcement seems to demonstrate the pervasive toxic culture within CrossFit LLC. I’m curious if the PFAA has been building a legal case to bring forward. So much to be seen in the coming weeks.
Biggest thing is Dave Castro’s lie saying he sat down with Luca and got his blessing. When infact it “wasnt up to him” anyways
Yeah mate , well said.
Thanks for sharing the information and giving your take on it.
I have found this video to be hard to waych because of all the cuts. Some parts you have a cut after every sentence...
This is super annoying to me because Dave is Navy vet and as a Navy vet myself I’m familiar with the same safety protocols that goes in to a training environment that he is and the fact CF couldn’t meet the basic of safety protocols and Daves propensity to ignore safety concerns is counter to training. A safety officer should have unilateral control over anything that is a safety concern. The fact that no safety swimmers were used, and no ambulance on sit is crazy to me
Yea they have never helped athletes who were injuried or in medical trouble have they?
I haven't done the open in for the past few years. In recent years, it has felt less and less like it did when I started CrossFit (2012). They raised costs on Box owners and I really struggle to see what they have given the Box owners in return. Its a shame really. I will say it is a small miracle that an accident like this didn't happen sooner given the open water events that they have had in the past. Quite frankly I never saw the swimming events as real CrossFit events. Swimming just isn't a part of a normal CrossFit box's operations.
I agree on everything but your argument "Swimming just isn't a part of a normal CrossFit box's operations". Games is not to be compared with "normal CrossFit box's operations". It is its own separate extreme version of CrossFit and has just partly to do with what's going on in the boxes.
I’ve worked in aviation, the airworthiness team (quality management) usually doesn’t report into operations. It reports into the CEO to insure integrity and give it the voice it needs to have. The safety leader shouldn’t report into Castro, this goes against proper safety management. They should benchmark safety management models
I see the direct connection between CrossFit and Bikram Yoga. Bikram was found out to be a despicable human just like the owners, leaders, and Dave Castro are. I hope that someone else starts a new "Hot Yoga" company to compete and ultimately burn CrossFit to the ground just like how Bikram Yoga is now a shell of the former company. The CrossFit community is amazing and I hope they can all find a new brand to stand behind going forward that actually cares about the lives of their members.
I said it a couple of times and I will surely repeat it: the community does not need the brand anymore, it's the other way around. #boycottcrossfit
How do you have lifeguards that don't do what lifeguards are supposed to do?
When things go good Dave puts his name all over it, but when things go wrong he's silent
Crossfit athletes need to take notes from other sporting agencies. If they want changes and things to be done differently, from the PFAA and the athletes on that committee and the athlete committee that is formed from the corporate board, must sit down and decide what needs to change for the athletes and then present it to the corporate team. An agreement needs to be made between all parties so that the athletes feel comfortable competing. All of them need to stand up and use their voice together. If it's done together, than the voice is louder. I find it hard to believe that corporate won't listen then.
Having done a fair few OWS events and triathlons, I can say that there's undeniably ways to make OWS events safe for hundreds of competitors let alone the tens that are usually in a CrossFit Games event.
Just looking at the comparison between crossfit safety and strongman safety is obvious any sport at its top is extreme and can be dangerous. Strongman takes as many precautions to make sure their equipment and athletes are ready for competition. The lack off in crossfit is insane
All about them but nothing to clarify this tragedy!!! I will fallow the methodology till my last days but CrossFit as company has let everyone down!!!! Time to end the vicious cycle!
CrossFit should avoid open water swimming events as safety concerns in those events carry risks that are many times higher than other CrossFit WODs. As a triathlete, I’ve seen how Ironman manages the safety elements of open water swimming and it’s very different than what we saw here.
Proud of you Craig.
Rogue should take over
Well said and looking at both sides, this is well done buddy
Look at how Ironman has evolved their open water swimming. 2,000+ amateurs in the water at one time can be done safely. CF can support 80 professional athletes if they care and had the competence.
In a way, omitting the information about the investigation is an admission of guilt. I the information gathered in the investigation were good for CrossFit in a way that absolved them of guilt, they would have released the full investigation report. Not surprised by the lack of accountability by their part.
Honestly seems like the report or lack of it was the worst thing CrossFit could have done.