The PFAA (Professional Fitness Athlete Association) has made 3 demands less than two weeks after the tragic passing of Lazar Đukić during even 1 of the 2024 CrossFit Games. Among those demands is that Dave Castro has to be “removed from his position in the Sport Team.”
Brent Fikowski has recently talked about how he doesn’t believe CrossFit to be truthful when they say that “safety is their number one priority.” Now, a letter from PFAA, signed by Brent Fikowski and many other high-level CrossFit athletes, has been released and asked for, among other things, for Dave Castro to be fired from his position in the Sport Team.
Chronological Facts: All We Know About Lazar’s Death and the Future of the CrossFit Games
PFAA Demands for Dave Castro to Be “Removed from His Position”
The official statement from PFAA demanding for Castro to be removed from his position was posted on their Instagram account. Read it all below.
The PFAA represents the interests of athletes competing in the CrossFit Games season. The sport is built on the principle that athletes do not know all of the details of the events they participate in, but we always assumed if something went wrong they would save us. We were wrong.
1) We demand an appropriate level of transparency between CrossFit and the PFAA regarding their 3rd party investigation as to the death of Lazar Đukić and subsequent changes made to protect all athletes going forward.
2) We demand CrossFit create an independent safety team to liaise with the PFAA on an ongoing basis.
3) We demand that Dave Castro be removed from his position in the Sport Team.
These demands reflect the immediate steps necessary to begin to restore athlete trust in CrossFit Sport. The PFAA is also acutely aware that more must be done to change the culture and strategic direction of this sport to ensure its future and that will take time.
Signed The PFAA Board – Anníe Thorisdottir, Brent Fikowski, Dina Swift, Fee Saghafi, Leeverne Engelbrecht, Patrick Vellner, Royce Dunne, Victoria Campos
Related: Gui Malheiros’ Wife Breaks Silence on What Happened Behind Closed Doors with CrossFit Organisers
How It All Came Down to This
Dave Castro considers the CrossFit Games his “baby” and could very much be on the way out once again.
Again? Yes, in the first few days of 2022, Dave Castro was fired without warning. 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 officially back. This time, he would be holding an advisory role and work closely with affiliates, coaches and the methodology.
However, in another big plot twist, less than 2 weeks after Castro being officially back, Justin Bergh announced he was leaving CrossFit and that Dave Castro was taking over that role. Which role is it? He became the new leader of Sport team with a little over a month before the 2023 CrossFit Games began.
Last year, although Castro provided feedback and collaborated with Bozman, the bulk of the programming was under Bozman’s direction. But then, just a month before the 2024 CrossFit Games was set to begin, Castro revealed during an interview with soon-to-be Fittest Man on Earth James Sprague, that he was leading the individual program for the Games.
So, with much back and forth, Castro fired, being brought back 5 months later, then a month later getting his old position back and then programming the entire 2024 CrossFit Games again, what can we say about this entire ordeal?
BOXROX believes that a tragic event such as the death of Lazar Đukić, accountability is necessary. We believe that is what the PFAA is trying to achieve here.
Transparency, third-party investigation, and eventually someone will have to be fired from their position as a result of everything that happened – from Lazar’s death, to how it was handled moments after, hours later, the meeting with athletes and the decision to continue the Games.
We trust the PFAA, especially with elite-level athletes behind it who probably know much more than any journalist would ever about the ins and outs of the Sport. However, we do believe that the PFAA could have been more direct in their approach and name the reasons why they are making these demands, make it clearer to what they believe is the problem and, therefore, why these demands could help solve said problem.
image sources
- Justin Bergh and Dave Castro: Courtesy of CrossFit Inc.
