Eyewitnesses speak out after athlete drowns during Crossfit Games 

It was not a 3.5hr run it was a 3.5 mile run.

They didn’t have the usual safety support. Cost savings on CrossFit side. Did you see divers and paramedics supporting? The “lifeguards” were volunteers. He was in distress way before the drowning. Taking his cap off, changing his strokes. No one checked on him, and ultimately no one supported him. This was pure negligence.

The swim should be first. No question about it. It's sad.

Lifeguards not paying attention or unqualified. No jet skis, boats, safety crew within feet of swimmers following closely. Easily was avoidable.

I have done several paddlboard safety events for Ironman MD. Those people on the boards clearly were not trained to recognize signs of drowning. When we are out on the water we are literally a few feet from the athletes at all times. We go through extensive training to respond in seconds. There also did not appear to be any powered watercraft out there either. This a tragedy that should not have happened.

Please learn to pronounce his first name correctly. Also it wasn’t a 3 1/2 hour run, it was 3.5 miles. Slightly more than a 5K.

2 lifeguards for 79 people in open water. That’s not a safety protocol,It’s a tragedy that could have been avoided

For those in the comments: as a person who has lifeguard training, you can't possibly blaim the other athletes. It is very very unlikely that during a competition you would recognise the signs of drowning unless it happens right in front of you. Drowning is not loud as shown in movies, drowning more often than not hopes silently because the person that is fighting for their life can't really scream for help (trying to catch a breath, water in the lungs, exhaustion etc etc). However traind lifeguard should be able to recognise the singing form someone struggling and intervene ahead of time especially in open waters where you have very little chance to find someone in time once they are under water. However I will also not blame the lifeguards on standby because they were very clearly understaffed. I blame CrossFit. First and foremost for programming a swim AFTER a run, which is in itself something no other sport does for those exact reasons (triathlon for example puts swimming first because of the greatest riskt, and running last for the smalest risk), secondly for not having enough staff, for not providing the apropriat swimming cap...

They failed him.

They're gonna get sued into oblivion for not having adequate/competent lifeguards

Crossfit is live at the moment like nothing happened , what a disgusting sport

Why didn't anyone get in the water who could swim and go and rescue him if they saw him struggling!

How sad!!! I have tremendous respect for people who compete in these. I was an open water swimmer and I can’t imagine running first then swimming. It’s exhausting - RIP- so so sad prayers to His family

There’s a reason the swim is always first in triathlons. The safety plan had 2 guards on SUPs (horrible idea) within 50 ft of the man that drowned because they didn’t recognize a distressed swimmer. Also the ratio of guards to swimmers was TERRIBLE. I hope his family takes legal action. Many prayers to them as losing their family member was completely avoidable.

you guys forgot to mention that it took them more than 3hrs for them to send a search and rescue team, and how the life guard told onlookers that they were wrong and nobody drowned.

That's embarrassing. To hold an event like this and allow someone to die.

The show just MUST go on. To the organisers: your denial meets with ego and ended up in a fatality.

Not a 3 1/2 hour run

Should of had lifeguards sitting on surfboards and jetski's rookies.

The fact that this wasn’t in a pool was obviously deadly. How can they expect these people to do an aquathalon in open water and not put lifeguards in boats? Or have some diver on hand? Reckless. Furthermore in the video I see two “lifeguards” on SUP boards… just completely awful. Did many of these athletes even have experience swimming in open water??? I cannot believe the negligence here

Unfortunate situation which begs the question, with so many people there why was this man not helped in time? God take this man and give his family strength.

As a 4x CrossFit athlete I can say it was just a matter of time before this happened.

I do believe in actual triathlon, part of the reason the swim is first is to avoid something like this happening.

Could Crossfit include lifejackets for the next swimming events for the athletes? Safety gear may have helped this swimmer to stay alive. My condolences to the family and RIP to the victim. Drowning and secondary drowning are deadly and should be taken seriously and drowning victims should be taken to the hospital. An autopsy will show what was in the person's system at the time of the drowning incident. Hoping crews still call 911 in the event of drowning even with lifeguards present.

If the swim was not the first event there should be some accountability for reckless endangerment and negligence

Shame on this happing just absolutely terrible this beautiful young man has lost his life just terrible prayers for him and his family for sure somebody should have been able to save him just shameful

This was just sad. And no one noticed him? When will the staff who were to watch the contestants be charged??

A friend’s brother died at a very young age during a triathlon a few years ago. He had a heart attack while swimming.

Castro's tremendous programming: Swim after run, snatch for reps for time.. SMH

Usually, there's a boat following the swimmers so this won't happen 😢 prayers for the family 🙏🏾 😢

Sounds to me like the event didn’t have ENOUGH backup. At the Olympics, divers and med professionals literally trail all the athletes to ensure their safety. Did they have like one boat for 100+ guests or something?

He was the CLOSES PARTICIPANT to the lifeguards !!! How could this happen ???

and here i was expecting this from france this year.

Really? how come the swimmers didn’t go and help him? is a competition that important that you would let somebody die your yelling for help I come you didn’t go out turn around and save the man!!! and all your words I mean really what is words when you had the opportunity to actually save somebody, so words are cheap

If they had life guards they weren’t doing their job there should not have been a drowning my heart goes out to too the young man who lost his life

3.5 mile run, not 3.5 hours

There wasn't any rescue boat with experienced divers there until a while after he went under. How is that taking every safety measure possible? That's a pretty bold statement, considering a man died and there were no rescue boats/divers until after he had already drowned. Had divers been there, he would've had a good chance of survival. CrossFit failed him!!!

Safety first before in the situation.

My heart goes out to his loved ones and to the bystander who attempted to help him. The only hero in all of this is the person who attempted to save him, then was turned away. Its pretty pathetic that a bystander can see a distressed swimmer, but the lifeguards (volunteers, I may add) paddled around looking as confused as a chameleon in a bowl of skittles.

This is a huge hit for crossfit in terms of safety concerns. A lot of neglicence here in terms of costs savings and lack of support by the lifeguards. 😢

Um....I don't think Crossfit said to "compete hard" in their statement. This is the exact verbiage of the statement that was released "But the only cure for grief is to grieve. And the best way to grieve is together. In our community, coming together to do hard things is how we pay tribute. In this spirit, we have decided to move forward with the 2024 CrossFit Games. " This misrepresentation of Crossfit is not okay. Please quote correctly and not mislead the public.

what were the lifeguards doing?

CrossFit doesn't care about safety if they did they wouldn't be showing people how to do exercises wrong

So a person dies because he either had a medical event or he overworked himself and didn't know his limitations which is sad so why is someone else at fault ? A sad situation but life happens and this is life. RIP and prayers for his family and friends.

Dude 1 life guard each side of him drowning just staring at him drowning. Wtf

You had a safety plan and people in place but the lifeguard stopped the spectator who jumped in to assist when nothing was being down to help this man who was clearly struggling to keep afloat...and it then took a whole hour to retrieve his body!!!??? Make it make sense! Whoever the people were that were in place were clearly not adequately trained or qualified for the role. The lack of action or delayed action on Crossfit's part is inexcusable!

He sunk so fast, this happened to me once but I was able to propel myself off the bottom and come up for air…I did this all the way to shore because my shoulders locked up in cold water. Wondering how deep it was, he was so close to shore

I guess someone said the lifeguards paddled around him and then went back out. I think there needs to be someone there held accountable.

Those lifeguards were not watching and why did they not take immediate action after other contestants screamed at them that Lazar went under?

3.5 mile run

Terrible this is ridiculous !! What the heck. Rip sl

A similar event tragically lost an Athlete in the Trinity River in Fort Worth ("The Mud Race") , I apologize for saying Crossfit games, but my intention was to tell contestants to be careful in the water ways. My brain was only thinking about events like the Sparta Race, Ironman ect... I am not a reporter ...just another athlete, who felt bad about someone loosing their life!!!! By the way I am from FTW. But everyone gets fog brain...

Maybe the order of events should be changed. I'm a great swimmer but I don't want to go swimming, after I've been weight lifting! Sorry this Young man died.

We were ultimately able to bring that body out of the water. Bruh the rescue efforts started 3 hours after he drowned

That’s terrible

What I don’t understand is many other swimmers in the water, all swimmers where not far off right around this person and near him so why calling for help if you see someone having problems besides swimmers see the man in trouble and having problems so why is not one of the team member in the water already swimming right beside why not rushing over to the person in trouble or to help him, one swimming member had time to call the safeguards, buy that time it was to late to save the man?

Jetskiis should be in the water feet from the swimmers observing everyone. So avoidable..

They schedual their games during the olympics, but the swim part after running and lifting, have volunteers for lifeguards that dont do their job, and then continue like nothing happened.

Rip

Steroid use 1:47

Ya last time i checked humans cant breathe underwater😂. Play stupid games win stupid prizes. Thats why u sign a waiver ✍️📝

I’m surprised this doesn’t happen more often since these athletes push themselves to their limits.

Cro$$fit

Crossfit, orthopedic surgeon’s best friend

this is such a stupid sport. pushes the body to the max...quite literally, a 3hr run folled by swiming this far and everyone trying to beat times in the middle of summer in texas in 87 degree water is just f'n dumb. very little to no PED testing as well fyi

Duh duh duh As if you all were in his body.None of you weren't even there.!!! Bozos

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The simple fact is that CF didn’t have the proper safety measures for the open water swim. As a diver, if you’re in the water and you get a cramp after running 3 miles and doing other components that require extreme exertion, you fall under the water and can’t get your head above.. you will drown. If any one of those competitors fell under the water it would’ve also taken an hour to get them out?! Really? Just swimming in a group with no dive team prepared to deal with a tired swimmer lol.. this is dumb. If I was a competitor that was in that water my heart would be falling to my stomach knowing if I got tired not a single person would’ve noticed and I would have absolutely drown too.. like.. absolutely not. Being fit is one thing but we aren’t fish. You can’t breathe under water it’s not rocket science

My condolences God be with the family.Rest in Peace ✝️ All Gods angels are in Heaven ✝️🕊️🇺🇸

Looks like need to be one lifeguard per person and watch him all the time and be close to him…and plus some device with them what showing location

Got the event wrong. Git his name wrong. Hot the milage and hours wrong. Sont report on things if you sont care about what tou are reporting on. Secondly. Its a dumb idea to make peoppe run for miles and then swim in water. Theres a reason swimming comes first in events like this.

Died doing what he loved?

Crossfit is for the athletes who don't have the talent or the skill to compete in real sports, I am not surprised really, I am surprised though that it took this long for something like this to happen. Condolences to his family.