The CAC, also known as the CrossFit Athlete Council, issued a public survey earlier this month asking for feedback on the upcoming 2025 CrossFit Games season. Between specific questions to open-ended submissions, the CAC gathered the feedback and has provided their response to those items.
The CAC addressed topics ranging from CrossFit’s new transgender athlete policy to demands to remove Dave Castro from his position as the Director of Sport to calls for more transparency regarding the third-party investigation surrounding Lazar Đukić’s death.
Additionally, the CAC took some of the feedback from the community and asked CrossFit to respond. Those topics included equipment lists and movement standards, and requests for information related to emergency action plans during competition.
Taylor Self, a member of the CAC, spoke about the responses to the CAC’s first community survey, “We felt like we had a diverse representation of responses from high-level athletes to every day athletes. There was a balance in perspectives and views on many of the issues we addressed in our statement.”
Self added, “Overall, we had several hundred responses to the survey and felt confident enough in that engagement to take these issues to CrossFit’s leadership and work on solutions for the community.”
You can read statements from the CAC, along with CrossFit’s responses, below.
CAC statement on the new CrossFit Transgender athlete policy:
We are addressing the new transgender athlete rule to foster more clarity and understanding within the community on CrossFit’s decision. First, this rule does NOT ban any athlete from competing solely on the basis of their gender identity , nor was there any intent to ban any group of persons on the basis of their chosen identity. This policy simply restricts all human beings to competing within the division that matches their biological sex at birth. The reason for this decision and rule is to protect competitive athletes from
losing qualifying positions due to unfair advantages that certain transgender individuals have over their selected divisions due to biological and genetic factors. Furthermore, athletes that have used banned substances or specific exogenous hormones to transition will be held to the same drug policy standards as all other athletes. In a sport based on physical work capacity, this creates a truly equal and level physical playing field for all. We understand that many transgender athletes simply want to compete in the division of their self identification with no intent to advance to the next stage of competition, however, as the sport arm right, but have simply come to a consensus on what we believe to be the best decision for a fair competition. As such, the CAC will not be requesting a change to the current rule/policy on transgender athletes. We recognize that any policy around this subject is likely imperfect for everyone, but it is our best attempt at protecting the fairness of competition.
CAC statement on the demand to fire Dave Castro:
We have received similar requests, such as those made by the PFAA, from individuals who are urging us to seek the removal of Dave Castro as director of the CrossFit Games. First and foremost, the evidence found does not support a request for Dave’s removal as director. Therefore, we will not be pursuing this course of action, nor do we believe it would address any of the challenges we face as a community.
Instead, we are committed to working alongside Dave and the Games team to serve as a conduit for effective and timely communication between the community, the athletes and HQ. We will not shy away from valid criticisms, constructive feedback, or difficult conversations, and we will remain transparent about the outcomes, or lack thereof, moving forward.
In conclusion, while we are an independent entity that works for the community, we firmly believe that Dave is the right person for the job. We are committed to collaborating with him to restore trust in the sport arm of CrossFit and the broader CrossFit community.
CAC statement on the third party investigation of Lazar Dukic’s death and CrossFit’s response:
Since the tragedy at the 2024 CrossFit Games, CrossFit conducted a third party investigation. CrossFit submitted a statement at the conclusion of this investigation explaining that due to “legal and privacy considerations” they can not release the full report.
Since the tragedy at the 2024 CrossFit Games, CrossFit has taken the following tangible actions in making the CrossFit Games safer and to prevent catastrophic events from occurring in the future. We hope athletes desiring change will at minimum acknowledge these positive steps CrossFit has taken.
- Suspending open water swimming indefinitely at the Games.
- Forming a CrossFit Games Safety Advisory Board composed of experts in sport safety.
- Forming the CrossFit Athlete Council composed of individuals voted on and selected by the community, NOT CrossFit HQ.
- Creating a position “Head of Safety – Sport” to work alongside the current Games team to increase the efficacy of safety protocols going forward.
These are tangible actions CrossFit HQ has taken to address the tragedy at the 2024 CrossFit Games and to ensure nothing like it happens in the future. For those who seek deeper action, we encourage you to reach out to the CAC via the @crossfitathletecouncil Instagram page so we can discuss your proposed solutions for continuing to drive positive change going forward. For those who wanted additional information on the results of the investigation, we asked HQ for additional details and they told us that they could not release specific details of the investigation out of commitments to privacy they made to individuals interviewed who requested anonymity and privacy. HQ stated that they will continue to follow the direction of their legal council on this particular subject matter.
CAC statement on athletes protesting the Games season:
Recently, some athletes have decided to announce their decision to sit the 2025 CrossFit Games season out. This is their right and prerogative. Moving forward, we hope that these athletes will be inclined to work with the CAC. Our goal is to take feedback and solutions to the problems they face to HQ so that we can continue working to bring the community together, in order to get back to doing what we love, together.
CAC statement on the community desiring more forward facing leadership from HQ:
We have discussed with HQ the community’s desire for forward facing leadership and transparency. Their formation of the CAC is a direct effort to become more transparent and to offer a channel for direct feedback to HQ. We hope that the community and athletes will utilize the CAC in this capacity to continue to drive positive change.
CAC statement on the community’s desire to fix inconsistency in season format:
The CAC took this feedback directly to HQ and communicated the need to adhere to a particular season structure for 3-5 seasons before proposing changes. This feedback was received but no further discussion or commitments to this feedback were made at this time.
CAC statement on the Community Cup:
We received split feedback on the communities desire to participate in the Community Cup and we discussed this feedback with HQ. We offered ideas for affiliate incentives to encourage participation and discussed the need for more effective and transparent communication on the what, why, when of the Community Cup.
HQ statement on the request for a detailed list of equipment, movements and standards required for each stage of competition:
“CrossFit does not plan to publish a detailed seasonal list of movement standards or required equipment this year. Each stage of the season will have detailed documents, including movement standards and required equipment (referred to as the scorecard documents). During the Open, the scorecard documents will be released simultaneously with the weekly workout release on Thursdays. During Semifinals the scorecard documents will be released on the Monday prior to the competition starting on Thursday. During the Community Cup, the scorecard documents will be released 1 week before the competition starts.
“HQ will discuss competition documents with CAC as 2026 season plans are made.”
HQ statement on the requests for detailed and shared plans for emergency situations on all events, including those off site:
“As promised in our safety and procedural changes update, CrossFit is committed to ensuring athletes have a clear understanding of emergency resources and protocols at the Games. Currently, the new CrossFit Games Safety Advisory Board is reviewing safety documents, including Games Emergency Action Plans. HQ looks forward to working with the CAC to determine the best way to ensure participating athletes have visibility into safety procedures. This will include, but may not be limited to, enhanced pre-event briefings for athletes and written materials.”
With the feedback gathered from the community in this first survey, the CAC plans to utilize this format going forward to capture concerns of athletes in the future. However, Self does envision the format of the questions may be slightly altered.
“Going forward our surveys will contain questions that are more objective-based rather than subjective or opinion-based questions,” explained Self. “However, we felt the need to take a pulse on the community in this first survey to get an understanding on how athletes and affiliates view the state of CrossFit and the upcoming CrossFit Games season.”
You can read the entire statement by the CAC here.
