Tragedy & CrossFit

Many of you may have seen this week that an athlete, Lazar Dukic, unfortunately died due to drowning during the first event at the CrossFit Games this weekend. For those who may not know, I was heavily involved as a Coach & Athlete at the CF Games and events leading up to it. The head medical director for the CF Games & Regionals used to come to our gym as well as many volunteers for the events they put on.

Years ago, around 2018, the sport began to go a direction I personally didn’t agree with, and the parent company CrossFit HQ went along with it. What most don’t know is that CrossFit is first and foremost an ideology & an exercise methodology. Greg Glassman created something truly brilliant, and I still hold that the original founding documents of CrossFit’s methodology are, hands down, the best things ever written on Health & Fitness.

Due to it’s genius, it caught on quickly and grew like wildfire. I found CrossFit in the Army in 2006, and used it as my full time training regimen starting around 2007. Back then, no one had any idea what it was, and really that held true until around 2014-2015. Obviously, now most people *think* they’re familiar with it…or at least have an opinion on it. CrossFit made way for F45, Orange Theory, Madabolic and many other fitness iterations of it’s mixed modal training methods. It also has built a resurgence in US Weightlifting, which did amazing at the Olympics this year and many of the athletes completed their first Oly Lift in a CF Gym.

When organizations grow quickly, a lot of people & personalities are added and company’s themselves can take on a life of their own. Many gym owners who opened between 2014-2018 were not serious individuals working hard towards the mission. They did a lot of reputational damage to the brand. They had a lot of unrealistic demands of CF HQ, and things unraveled quickly.

Dr. Adam Schulte was a client of Friendship between 2012-2016, and would volunteer on the medical staff. He oversaw the infamous “Murph” where athletes completed the workout in 100+ degree weather, on turf and a piping hot black Rogue Rig, which melted athletes hands off. Heat injuries were a serious concern with many athletes bordering on unconscious. All of this was vehemently opposed by the medical staff, and as a result of speaking up. Dr. Schulte was publicly fired from his role.

The conversations that Adam & I were having at the time were of integrating general care practitioners, physical therapists, chiropractors, dietitians and fitness coaches into one system. We saw the demand for a doctor who tells a patient that they’re pre-diabetic, or get put onto a prescription, or need to start taking anxiety/depression medication….but then don’t receive any additional follow-up on action items they can take to improve their condition.

We felt that this vision was aligned with the original version of what the CrossFit methodology put out. However, HQ had taken the company ‘the way of the devil’ to use Adam’s words. Media, Marketing & Profit became the company’s focus as it was sold to Private Equity a few short years later.

Adam moved home to California and now has his GP practice attached to a CF Gym, very similar to Built by Borda with us (obviously different care practices) and has executed on this vision personally. He has stayed aligned with his vision, as have we, to help every day people find health, happiness & direction in a world full of “Media, Marketing & Profit.”

I give this background, because I feel like this has been an inevitable path for CF. Cutting costs, firing high quality people who aligned with the original vision, and most importantly, losing sight of that vision. There still exist so many amazing men and women who support ‘the cause’…the original cause…who have sat by and supported an organization in decline. Because of what it once was, and what it could be.

The safety short comings of CF HQ are a travesty, and led to a tragedy. One that has sat heavy with me, and those who remain loyal to the original methodology. Jay, who I opened the gym with, called me shortly after. Shaken up, and just wanting clarity as to why it was so hard for him? He didn’t know Lazar? Why was this hitting him so hard. Was it because we’ve had close friends & family compete in that same event?! Because people we know and care about are still deeply involved? We talked for awhile, and I’ve thought about it this whole weekend. And I think it comes down to this:

This is the moment where the multiple-year-long failures of a once great organization culminated into the greatest of sins. The loss of an amazing young man’s life, who was by all accounts, an amazing son, fiancé & friend.

As many of you know and have witnessed, I’ve taken Friendship’s associations away from CF HQ the company. After hearing Adam’s stories, and witnessing some of the nastiness behind the scenes, I felt that I couldn’t ethically align what we’ve worked so hard to build here with what it had become, and the trajectory it was on.

It is truly a shame, because there are SO many amazing people in the community who love the methodology. The methodology itself has literally saved and extended thousands if not millions of lives. I feel bad for many of those people in this moment right now. They are suffering and grieving as a direct result of this wrongful path.

Sometimes, the most challenging thing is still being a believer despite the organizational failures. I’m not Catholic, but some of the best people I know are. Many of them have struggled with their faith throughout their lives, as a direct result of the failures of the organization as a whole.

The important thing to know is that you can still be a great person, following a great methodology, outside of and despite the organizations shortcomings. You can try to make it better, from the outside. You can try to “show the way”. It’s definitely hard, often lonely, and sometimes you really upset people who toe the organizational line hard.

But, I think it’s worth the moral clarity.

Tragedy and accidents are always an excellent time of reflection. A time to hug your kids tighter, and be oh so thankful for each and every moment and beautiful day we receive.

I hope this can be a wake up call to those in charge. To right the ship, to course correct, and to re-align with the vision of care, health & fitness above all else.