CrossFit athlete Kevin Ogar was paralyzed from the waist down after severing his spinal cord in the middle of a competition last Sunday in California.


Ogar was competing at the OC Throwdown event in Southern California on Jan. 12 when his lift went awry. From Texas-based The Fittest Games:

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…


Ogar, who has been involved with CrossFit for "2-4 years," had no health insurance, but a fund has been created to pay for his medical costs.

The OC Throwdown website released a statement regarding liability and the medical response to Ogar's injury, clarifying what happened after the video stops. A portion:

The OCT procured the proper liability insurance which is mandatory for this type of event. We had all necessary state, county and engineering licenses in place. The OCT also had a full medical team on-site, all weekend. Within seconds of the injury there was a medical team by Kevin's side and the paramedics arrived within minutes.

[The Fittest Games | BuzzFeed]