Crossfitter Paralyzed

CrossFit Athlete Paralyzed After Severing Spine During Competition

My intention in posting this on this sub-forum is to get feedback with respect to the incorrect way this guy (Kevin Ogar) bailed out of a missed snatch that went behind him.

Although most of the snatches I missed in times past were usually out front, I did miss a few behind me and always managed to quickly bolt forward with the bar hitting the platform behind me ( I did drop a snatch on my upper back one time, however).

What should/could he have done to avoid this? This wasn’t a max attempt. Apparently he was working up to the heaviest 3-rm load possible.

Almost nothing, its a freak accident. there’s been some speculation that the injury occurred at least partially before the bailed lift, which would account for him missing the lift at all.

He was incredibly fatigued from doing 7 WODs prior to this lift.

Sometimes, in a lift, stuff happens. Like the guy who dislocated his elbow in the snatch in the '08 olympics I think. Or the guy or dropped like 200kg on his head, and walked it off like a champ.

If you watch, he just drops the bar. He doesn’t let it fall behind him. That at least implies something kept him from doing so.

[quote]nkklllll wrote:
If you watch, he just drops the bar. He doesn’t let it fall behind him. That at least implies something kept him from doing so.[/quote]

I noticed his knees buckling inward as he tries to recover from the bottom, and true, he drops the bar. But he goes backwards with it as opposed to making an effort to move forward to get out of the dropping bars path.

Could he have been hindered by accumulated fatigue from previous endeavors? Why would they sequence a 3-rm build-up after all those other WODs?

Was he really hit by the bar? I couldn’t see it from the video… It seems like something happened to him before he left the bar to fall back…

[quote]Egg Head wrote:

[quote]nkklllll wrote:
If you watch, he just drops the bar. He doesn’t let it fall behind him. That at least implies something kept him from doing so.[/quote]

I noticed his knees buckling inward as he tries to recover from the bottom, and true, he drops the bar. But he goes backwards with it as opposed to making an effort to move forward to get out of the dropping bars path.

Could he have been hindered by accumulated fatigue from previous endeavors? Why would they sequence a 3-rm build-up after all those other WODs? [/quote]

what I meant was that, when I miss a snatch behind, it doesn’t fall straight down on my because it wasn’t in the right place. The bar is continuing to travel backwards. In the video, the bar looks like its stopped, and stable, and he just lets go. His arms bend and the bar drops.

Fatigue could definitely have hindered him. But I don’t think it would cause him to miss a lift in this way.

It doesn’t seem like he really tried to bail, just, let go and dropped, almost like he passed out (and then snapped back when his back, uh, snapped). The fact that it looks like his ass was on the ground when the barbell hit him probably didn’t help either, no wiggle room at that point. I’ve dropped a loaded bar on myself once or twice (with more weight than he did) but I was always still on my feet, which helped cushion the blow.

In any case, I’m real interested to hear what the man himself has to say as far as what he remembers happening and why he thinks it happened.

[quote]nkklllll wrote:
Sometimes, in a lift, stuff happens. Like the guy who dislocated his elbow in the snatch in the '08 olympics I think. Or the guy or dropped like 200kg on his head, and walked it off like a champ.[/quote]
Janos Baranyai dislocated his elbow doing a snatch in '08, came back a couple years later competing at euros/worlds a weight class up. Sa Jae-Hyouk dislocated his elbow in London, and Matthias Steiner was the fellow who dropped 196kg on his neck, and yeah he walked it off but he didn’t attempt any lifts after that.

I think the pertinent thing here is, the stacked bumpers directly behind the platform. Watch the video (hard as that is to watch): when his back hits the bar after he falls backwards, the bar is jammed against the stack of bumpers as he hits it, preventing the bar from rolling away or having any give at all (apart for bending). If those bumpers weren’t there (or if he was lifting in the middle of the platform) the bar might have rolled backwards as he landed. Might have been a different story.

Which begs the questions, why was there such a cluttered environment around the lifting platform/s? and why lift so close the back end of the platform (especially when there’s dangerous sh*t right behind).
Not meaning to sound like a dick in posing those questions. I really feel for the dude, this would have to be one of my worst nightmares personally. Hope he has as good a recovery from it as is possible given his circumstances.

[quote]Nick_D wrote:
I think the pertinent thing here is, the stacked bumpers directly behind the platform. Watch the video (hard as that is to watch): when his back hits the bar after he falls backwards, the bar is jammed against the stack of bumpers as he hits it, preventing the bar from rolling away or having any give at all (apart for bending). If those bumpers weren’t there (or if he was lifting in the middle of the platform) the bar might have rolled backwards as he landed. Might have been a different story.[/quote]
I disagree. The bar itself never actually makes contact with the plates stacked on the floor, the blues aren’t stacked high enough for that. The bumpers on his left side of the bar make contact with the edge of the stack of blues, but it’s hard to tell whether that happens before or after the bar hits him in the back, or simultaneously. Either way, the plates on his right side of the bar definitely never hit the ground until the bar had already hit him in the back.

For the record, I’m watching this video of it, it’s a little better than the 5 second one linked above (won’t embed for what should be obvious reasons):

/watch?v=smKLxEuC4cw

And trying to watch it slow-mo here: http://www.youtubeslow.com/

I’m having a tough time finding a frame that shows definitely whether the bar hit him before the bumpers on his left side made contact with that stack of blues or not, but I keep pausing on a frame showing that the bar definitely bent around his back a little when it made contact.

The snatch is just a dangerous lift IF the athlete is an overly fatigued state, has poor technique, or is lifting near maximal weights. Most of the Crossfit “accident” videos have been Snatches or Jerks. By comparison I think the clean is relatively safer than Jerks or Snatches. Once that weight goes overhead bad things can happen.

[quote]TheJonty wrote:

[quote]Nick_D wrote:
I think the pertinent thing here is, the stacked bumpers directly behind the platform. Watch the video (hard as that is to watch): when his back hits the bar after he falls backwards, the bar is jammed against the stack of bumpers as he hits it, preventing the bar from rolling away or having any give at all (apart for bending). If those bumpers weren’t there (or if he was lifting in the middle of the platform) the bar might have rolled backwards as he landed. Might have been a different story.[/quote]
I disagree. The bar itself never actually makes contact with the plates stacked on the floor, the blues aren’t stacked high enough for that. The bumpers on his left side of the bar make contact with the edge of the stack of blues, but it’s hard to tell whether that happens before or after the bar hits him in the back, or simultaneously. Either way, the plates on his right side of the bar definitely never hit the ground until the bar had already hit him in the back.

I’m having a tough time finding a frame that shows definitely whether the bar hit him before the bumpers on his left side made contact with that stack of blues or not, but I keep pausing on a frame showing that the bar definitely bent around his back a little when it made contact.[/quote]

Yeah, I see your point. Those blue bumpers are the ones I was watching. As you said, hard to see what hits first, bar on top of those blue bumpers to his left, or him and the bar. Those blue bumpers definitely look pretty suspect in relation to the accident. Either way, why not put them to the sides of the lifter like most other people do? They are easier to load, and not waiting back there to jack you up if/when you make a mistake.

The video quality is not great and the angle is not very good to truly determine exactly what happened. It looks like his back was rounded when he landed on the ground. If that is true, it is possible that that force was great enough to cause the damage he incurred without the bar ever touching him. He seems to be in extreme pain before the bar hits his back. It also appears that the bar hit him more around T7-9 vs T12-L1.

Having said all of that, none of it really matters. I am not a crossfitter, but I love the way they rally around each other during workouts and during times of crisis. I hope he recovers and wish him and his family nothing but the best.

[quote]What should/could he have done to avoid this? This wasn’t a max attempt. Apparently he was working up to the heaviest 3-rm load possible.
[/quote]

To answer the original question,

  1. don’t snatch with a pile of junk behind you
  2. don’t snatch up to ANY max (even if it’s 3RM) in an extremely fatigued state after already having done a ton of volume that day.
  3. always have adequate nutrition and hydration when you’re lifting heavy shit over your head…

…because as others have said, it really does look like he got light-headed or almost fainted from the exertion and just collapsed. There’s no visible effort to dump the bar properly or get out of it’s path… he doesn’t even put his hands down to brace himself for the fall.

I don’t think you can fault the guy for the way he bailed because I don’t think he was even conscious at the time.

Only tangentially related, but the thought of doing touch-and-go reps on the snatch seems insane and terrifying and an open invitation to lower back injury.

to me it looks like he is simultaneously hitting the ground with great force as the bar is landing on him,basically he was crushed, its so sad.

The olympic lifts are complex movements meant to be executed at lightening speed. Doing above 3 reps is dangerous as your form breaks down from lactid acid. These cross fitters should stay away from olympic lifts

[quote]IRON TIGER wrote:
The olympic lifts are complex movements meant to be executed at lightening speed. Doing above 3 reps is dangerous as your form breaks down from lactid acid. These cross fitters should stay away from olympic lifts[/quote]

No. Your form won’t break down because of lactic acid. Doing a single rep is dangerous because you might not be strong enough to lift it. Doing 10 reps in the squat is dangerous because you get fatigued.

And with how much olympic lifting has grown in popularity because of crossfit, I’m gonna say that I’m glad they do the olympic lifts.

I saw a interview of Kevin Ogar after his injury (the crossfitter in the video) That lift was actually well below his 3RM. He had planned to go heavier but no one had hit over 230 i believe. He wasnt overly fatigued and he said the only reason he bailed was because the catch felt off and he didnt want to risk getting hurt trying to stand up with it.