My Friend Died at the CrossFit Games. Now, We Demand Change.

The fitness sports world experienced a shocking tragedy earlier this month when Serbian athlete Lazar Đukić died during the first day of the 2src24 CrossFit Games. The circumstances of the incident are still under investigation. But athletes had expressed concerns about the 2src24 Games—and how CrossFit, Inc. conducts the sport more generally—before the competition began.

After the Games, third-place finisher Brent Fikowski shared a series of slides to Instagram outlining the steps the Professional Fitness Athletes’ Association (PFAA) took ahead of the competition to request more transparency about the 2src24 event. (The PFAA is an advocacy group for CrossFit athletes for which Fikowski serves as president.) The PFAA has pushed for the professionalization of the sport since its founding in 2src2src, advocating for changes from standardized judging to higher safety standards. The requests made in this case were, as Fikowski documents, largely dismissed. “To me, this is a typical indication of CrossFit’s lack of professionalism and interest in collaborating on safety concerns,” he wrote.

Following Đukić’s death, the conditions around the sport were viewed as unacceptable by many CrossFit athletes. Fikowski said this in his post: “We need change and I, with my colleagues at the PFAA, hope to lead the way on behalf of all athletes, past, present and future to prevent something like this from happening again in a sport we love.”

Now, the PFAA has published a statement and three demands for CrossFit, Inc. The group wants transparency around the investigation of Đukić’s death, the formation of a new independent safety team, and the resignation of Dave Castro from his role on the Sport 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 to MH at length to share just what he and the PFAA are seeking to change, and how they believe CrossFit can move forward by protecting its athletes. Here are his words, edited and condensed for clarity.

THE NATURE AND foundation of our sport, and what makes our sport unique, is that we don’t know what we’re going to do. You sign up for a competition at every level, and there’s a level of mystery when it comes to what events you’re going to compete in. Sometimes you know about those a week or two in advance. Sometimes you know about them an hour in advance. And there’s an assumption that if something went wrong, we would be saved. We were wrong.

So that’s the fundamental breaking of trust. If you look back at my Instagram post from a week ago, it’s clear to see that the trust in a lot of other areas was thin. We’ve spoken with athletes that have competed at different CrossFit competitions over the years, and many have stories that mirror the interactions that I’ve had with the staff at CrossFit, Inc. Unfortunately, it’s a tale as old as time in many sports, where those that hold the power and organize the events treat athletes as disposable. “Oh, if you don’t like it, someone else will take your place. You’re lucky to be here.” It’s a very common attitude, and that’s why athlete associations or athlete unions are formed to look out for the best interests of the athletes.

[CrossFit Inc.’s] response over the past four years has been mixed at best, but often dismissive. “We know better.” It’s just a general sentiment and a common tone, and then it’s a pattern of behavior of not listening to concerns. No one on that team has competed at a high level or coached at a high level in this sport, and many of them haven’t competed in any sport at a high level. So there’s a desire for us to have our experiences and our understandings of this sport that is very new—and that has changed a lot in 1src to 15 years as to the caliber of the athletes and how we train—and trying to get that voice into the room where decisions are being made.

What we’re doing now with these demands, this is the worst possible scenario. We’ve always sought to engage with [CrossFit] in a very professional manner. Create clear lines of communication, keep things private, create systems together, work collaboratively. Having to bring this out into the public is the end result of years of this systematic behavior and an unwillingness to engage.

This statement and these three demands—this is the beginning. We say more must be done to change the cultural, strategic direction of the sport, and that is very important. We emphasized that as we prepared this statement and spoke with multiple athletes, and that was something they wanted to drive home. It cannot just be, “Hey, these are the three demands,” and they abide by them, and both sides go back to operating as we did in years past. That is not our expectation. This is going to be part of a continued effort to force for some very large change in the coming weeks and months.

Discussions [about athletes leaving CrossFit] are taking place. When most of the athletes that we help represent are asked, “What do you do?” They’ll say, “I’m a CrossFit athlete.” So that word, that name association, that brand, still has value to us, and we’re not here to try to destroy that brand. That’s not our intent of these demands. We want to save the brand. However, we believe that there are individuals that work at CrossFit and there is a culture there that needs a very large shift. That is our perception, and it’s a perception held by not just athletes, but many others that are involved in this industry. So we’re looking for options where there’s a future that can involve the brand and involve the word CrossFit, but we’re also looking at options that do not if that’s what it comes to.

If CrossFit, Inc. feels that [Director of the CrossFit Games Dave Castro] has a role in affiliates and training, they’re welcome to keep him in that role. When it comes to the Sport Team, this breach of trust regarding the death of Lazar—even during the weekend [of the Games] there was more than one incident that represented a consistent pattern of behavior in which we felt that he’s communicated to us one message, and then subsequently presented to the public a different message. Along with that the willingness to cooperate, the willingness to communicate with athletes on an individual basis, on a collective basis, and a collective basis with the PFAA—it hasn’t been there. Looking ahead, so many large changes need to happen. We don’t feel like those can happen with Dave Castro as part of the Sport Team.

We want a sport where there’s an expectation that they want you to push hard. We want you to go as fast as possible, and we’re going to create a safe environment for you to do that. And if you maybe get overheated, or if you’re struggling in the water, we’re going to be there for you. If you tear your hands, we’re going to have someone there to help patch you up. That’s the expectation, and that feels like the lowest expectation that we could ask for from this competition. We’re not asking for free snacks, right? The next level to that is, we want to figure out who the best is. You don’t need to hurt us or put us through more than is necessary to sort us from first to last. We don’t need to do 1src,srcsrcsrc reps when 1,srcsrcsrc reps would be appropriate.

Lazar had a great sense of humor. That’s what always stuck out for me. Big smile, always talking trash—in the best way. We needed a European representative [for the PFAA], so I sort of roped him into it. He was happy to do it. I think it stemmed from Lazar and his brother [Luka], they wanted competing in this sport to be their primary source of income. They would compete as frequently or more frequently than most other men at their level. They’d travel around Europe and do competitions—and the longer you compete, the more you see. A lot of times, the culture of how competitive organizers treat athletes is mirrored by how CrossFit even portrays it in their media. It’s this, “Hey, if you don’t like it, leave,” attitude.

But Lazar was a friend, and a very good athlete. He was one of the few athletes that would come up to my coach and genuinely have a conversation with him. It wasn’t just “hi, bye,”—it was genuine. I always wanted to spend more time with him. It’s hard when you’re competing. I always thought that I’d get to spend more time with him when I was done competing. It’s hard that he’s gone.