Dave Castro has been part of the CrossFit Games since its inception in 2007. The following year, a documentary was made of the CrossFit Games at his ranch and a snippet of the video has resurfaced after the tragic death of athlete Lazar Đukić at this year’s competition.
A quick recap:
Popular Games athlete Lazar Đukić went missing during the final swimming section of Event 1 of the 2024 CrossFit Games. The Event consisted of a 3.5-mile run followed by an 800-meter swim. After it was concluded, the organizers and crowd noticed that Lazar Đukić was missing. The last sighting of Đukić on the live stream could be seen at the 38:02 mark, around 100 metres from the finish line – the Livestream has since been deactivated. An hour after his disappearance, the body of Lazar Đukić was taken from the lake where competitors were swimming.
Chronological Facts: All We Know About Lazar’s Death and the Future of the CrossFit Games
Dave Castro’s Comment in 2008
The tragic passing of Lazar Đukić has fueled many to call for change, demanding accountability to those responsible for such a preventable death. The PFAA, for example, asked for Dave Castro to be removed from his position within CrossFit’s organisation.
Dave Castro was fired without warning in 2022. At the time, Castro was the general manager of Sport for CrossFit Inc and Justin Bergh was taking over the role. Five months later he was back and became leader of Sport team with a little over a month before the 2023 CrossFit Games began – such position was previously held by Justin Bergh.
Just like the PFAA, many people attributed part of the blame for Lazar’s death to Dave Castro. Now, a clip from the 2008 CrossFit Games Documentary is making waves online again where Dave Castro talks about what they would do in case someone gets “seriously hurt” or even killed.
“If someone has to go to the hospital we are going to to take a break. … If someone gets fucking seriously hurt, you have to stop and rejudge. You don’t just continue on and fucking kill other people.
He continues: “If someone here gets hurt, we’re gonna stop, try to asses what happened, see it [unintelligible] from ever happening again.”
You can watch the video here.
Castro’s comment points to the direction that CrossFit’s organisation would stop the CrossFit Games competition if someone gets seriously hurt. That is not what happened after the passing of Lazar Đukić during the very first event. Castro has since apologised to the Đukić family about the decision to continue, saying it was an organisation decision, not the Lazar Đukić family, to continue with the competition.
You may also watch the entire documentary for free in this link – the part where Dave Castro talks about the possibility of someone getting hurt and not “continuing on” until someone gets killed can be seen from minute 9.
Related: Luka Đukić Speaks Out Against CrossFit After his Brother’s Tragic Death
After the passing of Lazar Đukić and the decision for the 2024 CrossFit Games to continue, a total of 13 individual athletes have officially withdrawn their names from continuing in the competition.
The full list of the athletes who chose not to continue competing at the 2024 CrossFit Games are:
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