3 Key Takeaways from Brian Friend’s Good Morning Murph Podcast Interview

They then turned to his decision to remain mostly silent about the information he learned on the spot and through conversations with Luka Ðukić and the Ðukić family.

The timing of the interview seemed odd, but in an email, Friend explained to Morning Chalk Up that, “It’s something I’ve been thinking about and preparing for over the last few months, but I was never sure when or where I would do it. the.”

• The friend continued: “This podcast with Michael and Shireen happened very naturally and spontaneously… I also think that Michael created it for a community that is largely still searching for answers [the European CrossFit community] it was important.”

One big thing: Friend shares some information in the interview that may not yet be widely known and offers his thoughts on topics that have sparked important and, at times, controversial discussions among CrossFit experts.

With that context established, let’s take a look at three key takeaways from the discussion.

Behind the scenes in Fort Worth

After presenting some current details on the B.Friendly Fitness “World Tour”, the conversation turned to Fort Worth.

Friend shared that among the athletes he has developed relationships with, Lazar was one of the most special. It was a friendship that had grown immensely in the 15 months or so leading up to the 2024 CrossFit Games.

When asked what he thought happened to Ðukić that day on the water, Friend said he knew Lazar wanted to win Event 1 and believed he was the favorite to win.

• “If you know Lazar, he’s pushed himself to the limit before where his body is closed to the competition. It happened on the Burj Khalifa run [at the 2022 Dubai Fitness Championship]. It happened at the end of ‘The Capitol’ a few years ago at the Games,” he said.

Friend went on to note that “there should be no one in the history of our sport who has a more intimate understanding of the level to which athletes are willing to push themselves than Dave Castro.”

Later, the discussion turned to the safety protocols that had been in place at the lake that day.

• “When we look at the previous Games, the structure of the organization, security protocols etc [Event 1]I believe, all for financial reasons, it was not in line with what Dave [Castro] and his team usually would,” Friend said.

When asked why he initially stayed but then left Fort Worth, Friend explained that he wanted to see how the event would handle the Lazarus tribute and how the first few events of the day would play out.

He noted that he had also spoken with Luka Ðukić, Lazar’s younger brother, for 45 minutes early Friday morning. The friend learned things the rest of the community wouldn’t know until much later, including details about the conversation Luca had with Castro and Nicole Carroll after his brother’s body was pulled from the bottom of the lake.

He went on to explain that he chose to leave after learning how Castro had misrepresented (at least) that conversation to the athletes, the media and on Friday morning’s live stream. The friend was also disappointed by the quick return to normalcy in the arena.

• “I’m thinking to myself, what are we doing here?… During the men’s ‘Clean Ladder’, the music comes back to full blast in the stadium. There is no more grief,” he said. “I see the ‘wave’ up. I see people dancing to ‘Giddy Up Cowboy’ in the stadium.”

Before they left, Friend and B.Friendly Fitness held a small dedication ceremony by the lake. About 100 people attended and the event was streamed for those in Serbia.

Dave Castro should have resigned or been fired

The view that will undoubtedly get the most attention is Friend’s claim that Dave Castro should have resigned or been fired after the Games.

• While many others, both inside and outside the CrossFit community, have made similar statements, Friend’s reasoning for doing so in the podcast interview is worth noting.

As mentioned above, Friend argued that CrossFit made financial decisions that “the safety protocols…were not in line with what Dave [Castro] and his team usually would.”

Friend blames the private equity firm that owns CrossFit for those financial decisions. Along those lines, however, Friend also notes that Castro has overseen open water swimming events for as long as they have been scheduled at the Games, and that Castro, as Games Director, has the final say in making changes to the events for any reason.

• “Especially when training takes place in hot environments and you go over 30 minutes in the time domain…as you need to be on point from a medical safety and risk mitigation perspective because athletes will make irresponsible health decisions to try to get an extra point on the field” , he said.

“Dave should know that as well as anyone,” Friend continued. And he’s also the only person who could make a decision based on the resources available at the Games.”

He went on to say that, given the opportunity, Castro will go to “extreme lengths” to ensure the safety of athletes.

He had one final point to make on this subject and closed his reasoning:

• “[Castro] he was not given that opportunity from a fiscal point of view this year [to put adequate safety protocols in place]and from all I could tell, he was willing to risk it for the test rather than sacrifice the test for the safety of the athletes. And that alone is why I cannot understand how he is still in the position he is in,” concluded Friend.

In a follow-up email, Morning Chalk Up asked the friend if the same logic applied to CrossFit CEO Don Faul.

“Not really,” Friend said, explaining that Castro’s reinstatement as Game Director passed that responsibility on to him.

• “I’m not entirely sure of the relationship between the Board of Directors, Don Faul and the decision-making process, but my gut tells me it’s somewhat handcuffed when it comes to big decisions,” Friend said. “Dave [Castro] he had full opportunity to assess the situation at the Games and made decisions based on access to that information and in-depth historical experience, which put him in a unique position. In this case, I feel it has put him in the unique position of being the one who, for better or for worse, has to bear the brunt of what happened under his watch.”

“10-40%” drop in Open Participation in 2025

Eventually, the conversation turned to the 2025 season, where Friend speculated there would be a significant drop in Open registrations.

• “Everyone I’ve spoken to is projecting a drop in Open participation at least 10% and more than 40%. It’s a wide range, but what do we usually say? You vote with your dollar,” he said.

Friend does not plan to register for the Open, even though he has done so every year since 2013. Additionally, he will not register for the judges’ course, which he says he has done since “2015 or 2016.”

• “I am not in the mood to contribute financial support in the way the company is now operating,” he said. “But it’s a gray area because I love training and I love the community.”

That said, Friend believes most of the top athletes will continue to compete through the 2025 Games season.

“The majority of athletes – let’s call them the top 200 men and women in the world – are going to compete in the CrossFit Games season,” he said. “That’s what they do and they’ve already had to deal with the wild inconsistencies, the frustrations and they’ve just adapted.”

• He noted, however, that there will be some in the top 50 and even the top 10 in the world who will choose not to compete. And the end result will be similar to what we saw in the 2024 Games.

In other words, winning the Games may no longer represent an undisputed claim to being “The Best on Earth.”

The bottom line

There’s no doubt that there’s a lot to unpack in this nearly two-hour interview, including a lot of information and context that we weren’t able to convey here.

Definitely worth a listen.

In our email exchange, Friend clarified his goals in this podcast interview, and we’ll close with his words:

• “The goal of sharing these things is to provide more clarity and information, to give people the opportunity to make decisions for themselves with a more complete perspective. My view is not the complete one, but most of the others who would have similarly valuable perspectives will not share them soon, if at all.’

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Featured Image: @chadmueller / Instagram