Luka Đukić, the brother of the late Serbian CrossFit star Lazar Đukić, has released a heartbreaking account of his brother's drowning during the August 8 CrossFit Games in Texas, criticizing the Games' leaders and claiming that his wishes after the tragedy “were not respected.” Lazar drowned during the swimming portion of the race, and his final moments were captured on a live stream video.
After the tragic incident, when Luka had to identify Lazar's body in a photograph, the athlete went back to his hotel. Ten minutes after he arrived, Luka says, he was notified that Dave Castro, creator and director of the CrossFit Games, wanted to meet with him.
Dave entered the room [CrossFit Games Chief Brand Officer] Nicole Carroll sat there for a while and said, “We want to continue the games, as a tribute to your brother,” Luka wrote on Instagram.
“In one form [sic] At that moment I was mentally inside, I said a lot of things, but [the] The most important ones were: “I don't care, nothing will bring it back” and “I don't think I'm thinking clearly, so this decision is not up to me.” Dave replied, “It's not up to you anyway,” Luka claimed.
“Later,” Luka continued, “the decision to continue the games was presented as 'the family's wish.'
Luka claimed that Castro further humiliated himself by allowing the media to photograph him at the Lazarus memorial the next day. “I didn't want any media around me, I didn't want to be around the athletes and I didn't want to be on the screen,” Luka wrote. “Since my wishes were not respected, I did not have any other conversation with anyone after that [CrossFit Games] HQ. I was asked to meet Dave on Saturday night, which I declined, and I was asked to attend the closing ceremony, which I also declined.”
Luka continued: “I got a call from the medical examiner's office at noon on Friday, who said that the doctor who performed the autopsy classified Lázár's body as 'extremely fit' and that there were no signs of a heart attack. “
Luka felt that event organizers and volunteers could have done more to prevent his brother's tragic death. “What I saw later on the video was that they didn't try to save Lazar, he fought and fell close to two very unequipped volunteers (yes) on the paddle board who didn't see him [sic] him.”
Luka added: “While I'm not going to point fingers at this post and try to tarnish anyone's name, I feel it's my duty, along with my family, to do everything in my legal power to ask questions, dig deeper and try to see. whose fault it is [it] there is.”
Luka ended the post by paying tribute to Lazar, asking fans to remember him for his achievements rather than the circumstances in which he died. “My brother loved this sport and was one of the best in the world at it,” Luka said. “He had some unreal results from the bottom, but he was one of the best people in the world with a heart bigger than a mountain. And that's how he should be remembered.”
Representatives for the CrossFit Games, as well as Castro and Carroll, did not immediately respond to requests for comment Men's Magazine.
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