“A CrossFit athlete vanished in the water during a live-streaming of the CrossFit Games in Texas, with cops since recovering a body.”
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People still do crossfit?
They took inexperienced swimmers, put an open water swim as the 2nd exercise in a WOD after a 3.5mile run… and are surprised someone crashed out and drowned?
Triathalons put the swim at the beginning for good reason. Sad story.
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Yeah, I went to a CrossFit Games a few years back, but didn’t even know it had started this year until I caught this story. Wonder how the company as a whole is doing now that it has a new owner?
A swim after a 3.5 mile run in August Texas heat? Do they not have doctor’s advising them on the safety for their participants?
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There’s a fucking reason triathlons a) start with swimming b) every participant wears a bright colored swimming cap c) there’s a ton of safety kayaks and speedboats around.
Drownings are quick and silent and from the footage it seems the organization was downright criminal in terms of safety precautions (three SUPs and one jetski?)
About the madness of putting 800 m of freestyle swimming (which is a lot for non-trained swimmers), after a 5k others have spoken…
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It’s always easy in retrospect to say “Well, you shouldn’t have done X, Y, or Z…” but in this case this seems so idiotic. I feel like CF by nature is just not going to ever be a good spectator sport, and adding things like an open water swim just seems gimmicky and, as we saw, dangerous.
CF is really hard, and - for me - it can add an element of chaos and effort that wasn’t there before to my training. But, it’s just not a viewer-friendly activity. These people are fantastic across a broad range of activities, but a master of none. If I want to watch Olympic lifting, I want to watch the very best in the world do it. If I want to watch running and swimming (which I don’t, but if I did) I’d want to watch the very best in the world do. And, while impressive, watching jacked athletes rep out kipping muscle ups right after crushing it on a stationary row machine does not make for compelling viewing.
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We had a great time as spectators at the CrossFit Games, but it depends on the WODs/events. The ones held in stadiums and arenas were great. The organizers really had a way to “game-ify” them and make then into exciting races. Plus there were big screens, announcers, etc. (I wrote about it HERE.)
But I have heard ticket-buying spectators complain about some of the events, especially the surprise events that take place outside of the main facility, like swims, runs, biking, etc. When you buy a ticket ($265 to $665 this year) you expect to see all the major events you can over the four days.
But having been there once and seeing 16,000 people erupt in the final events, I’d say that most of it is pretty viewer friendly. I mean, people watch golf and baseball… 
I admit though, it was weird when the athletes were jumping rope as part of a larger event and 16,000 were cheering them on. Surreal, even.
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That’s sad to hear. Pushing your performance limits in water can be reckless. I’ve been reckless taking long swims far from help in large bodies of water. People do all kinds of reckless stuff and sometimes bad things happen.
Did he not know how to tread water or float on his back? I realize he was fatigued and in a competition, but these are very basic swimming techniques that I learned so young that I don’t recall not knowing them. I’m assuming water temperature isn’t a concern in Texas.
Some kind of sudden event like a stroke, perhaps?
The guy was a former water polo player where you regularly wrestle with 200+ pound opponents, so I’d venture to say he knew how to swim and stay afloat. He wasn’t professionally trained to swim long distances though.
If you look at the video he’s struggling for around 40 seconds - including the telltale head bobbing - that’s textbook drowning almost exactly as you’d be shown on a lifeguard course. Maybe it was a spasm, a lower leg cramp that triggered a panic response, it doesn’t matter - safety boats should have reached him in a matter of seconds. Practically on any triathlon race, if you stop and start treading water a lifeguard on a kayak/boat/jet ski will approach you in 15 seconds tops.
Two (three?) volunteers on stand up paddles weren’t adequate.
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I like to get out past the breakers and just cruise with a snorkel, but yeah, it can be very bad.
I got bashed in the face by a paddle board trying to get out past the breakers once, and that turned my ass straight around! (Had to put my nose back where it was supposed to be and make sure my teeth were tight!).
It was probably bath water warm. Possibly too hot, this time of year… lol
Shitty programming has been the CrossFit way since its inception. Sucks it wound up here.
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Not well now.
I watched a clip on it. Air temps were about 100°. Water temperature was around 87°. He may have suffered from heat stroke, according to what I watch. The terminology “disappeared” is a misnomer. He had lifeguards yards away on other sides of him. A spectator swam out to one and told them an athlete just went down. The crowd was yelling at both lifeguards. “Negligence” might be the proper verb. I am not a lifeguard. Nor am I a CrossFit athlete. People disappear in national forests. People disappear boating off the coast of the Golden Gate. This was a horrible case of apparent ineptitude. Sorry for the rant, I watched this happen and it was awful.