CrossFit athlete Kevin Ogar severed his spinal cord in the middle of competition last Sunday. As a result, he is paralyzed from the waist down. Ogar was competiting at the 2014 OC Throwdown event when all hell broke loose. The Fittest Games made a statement:
What happened is as simple as it is tragic. A missed snatch at the 2014 OC Throwdown came down on his back, severing his spinal cord and leaving him paralyzed from the T-11 vertebra down. I’ve seen several other athletes drop bars on their backs in training – I’ve dropped a bar on my back in training – but fortunately never with this result…
We live in a dangerous world. In our training, we do dangerous things daily – whether it’s throwing heavy barbells over our heads or swinging from pull-up bars and rings. I want you all to recognize and respect the tools that we work with in the gym. We use them to make us strong, but they can also do great hurt. We cannot eliminate all danger or injury. To do so would be to deny the human condition. What we can do is take advantage of each and every day we are given – in the way that it is given to us.
So sad to see someone’s life suddenly turned upside down. A fundraiser has been created to help pay for Ogar’s medical expenses.
[h/t The Fittest Games| Deadspin]