CrossFitter Luka Đukić Speaks Out After His Brother’s Tragic Death

LAST MONTH, THE CrossFit Games was briefly suspended following the tragic death of Serbian athlete Lazar Đukić during a run-swim event on the first day of competition. The Games later continued after a statement from CrossFit, Inc., CEO Don Faul. “After speaking with the Đukić family and other athletes, we made the decision to move forward with the 2src24 CrossFit Games, dedicated to Lazar Đukić,” the statement read. Still, some athletes— including Đukić’s brother and fellow competitor, Luka—dropped out of the competition.

Following the tragedy, Luka Đukić offered no public statement, aside from a pair of posts to Instagram Stories that have been archived on his profile. He broke that silence on September 5, sharing a lengthy written statement via Instagram that expresses heavy displeasure with the way CrossFit and Dave Castro, the embattled architect of the Games, handled things in the wake of his brother’s death.

A CrossFit rep shared a statement with Men’s Health from Castro apologizing to Luka Đukić and his family. “I should never have said that the decision to continue the CrossFit Games in August was ‘blessed’ by their family,” the statement reads. “At the time, the decision was made to continue the Games and allow our athletes to compete – and we respected those athletes who decided to withdraw. This decision was made by CrossFit and I never intended to put the weight of this decision on Luka, the Đukić family or our CrossFit athletes. I’ve never been in a situation like this before and I absolutely made a mistake. I sincerely regret any pain I’ve caused.”

Đukić’s post arrives at a time when CrossFit, Inc., is still battling criticism, with the Professional Fitness Athletes’ Association (PFAA), an advocacy group for CrossFit athletes, demanding changes from the sport’s governing body—including a call for Castro to be removed from his position. A third-party investigation into Lazar Đukić’s death has not yet concluded.

Luka Đukić Recalls his Brother’s Tragic Swim

LUKA’S POST COVERS his brother’s final moments in great detail. He begins by outlining the strategy he and Lazar formulated for the run-swim event that opened the Games. Lazar, the stronger swimmer of the two, would coast behind Luka during the run to maintain energy for the swim; Luka would then draft behind Lazar in the lake.

Lazar eventually outpaced Luka during the run, and the two split apart during the swim. Upon finishing the event, Luka wrote he wasn’t able to find Lazar. He says he found Dave Castro, the architect of the Games, who told him that Lazar’s chip was registered as finishing the event (a statement that turned out to be incorrect). After being reassured that his brother had finished, Luka wrote, he left to begin recovering from the swim and give an interview.

“What I later saw on the video was that there were no attempts to save Lazar,” Luka wrote. “He was fighting and went down close to two very unequipped volunteers (yes) on the paddleboard who didn’t saw [sic] him, and very close to the finish line.”

Luka’s statement later breaks down a conversation he had with Castro in his hotel room. Castro informed him of the plan to continue the CrossFit Games “as a tribute to Lazar,” and Luka responded that he was not “thinking clearly so this decision should not be up to me.” He writes that Castro replied: “It’s not up to you anyways.”

Luka had other issues with CrossFit’s handling of the tragedy too. He wrote that he had one more conversation with Castro, this time about a tribute to Lazar that was slated to take place. Luka said that he asked Castro “to provide me [sic] level of privacy I needed at that time,” adding that he did not want to be around media and other CrossFit athletes and did not want to be shown as part of the tribute on screen. “My wish was not respected,” he wrote. After that, Luka said he refused to speak to Castro or anyone else from CrossFit HQ, and he rejected invitations to other tributes for his brother.

He added that the medical examiner contacted him to inform him that an autopsy indicated that Lazar did not die from a cardiac event (a theory that made the rounds on the internet). “While I won’t point fingers on this post and try to ruin anyone’s name,” Luka continued, “I feel obligated with my family to do everything that is legally in my power to ask questions, go deeper into this case, and try to see whose fault is that there was no reaction from the multi-million dollar organization, whose… job is to make this one weekend perfect.”

Luka closed his statement with a tribute to his brother. “My brother loved this sport and he was one of the best in the world at it,” he wrote. “He set some unreal achievements starting from the rock bottom but he was also one of the best people out there with a heart bigger than a mountain.”

“And that is how he should be remembered.”

The Broader Response to the CrossFit Games Tragedy

OTHER CROSSFIT ATHLETES have been vocal criticizing the organization following Lazar Đukić’s death.

“The PFAA represents the interests of athletes competing in the CrossFit Games season,“ the PFAA wrote in an Instagram post. “The sport is built on the principle that athletes do not know all of the details of the events they participate in, but we always assumed if something went wrong, they would save us. We were wrong.” The PFAA’s three demands are as follows:

1. Transparency between CrossFit and the PFAA regarding the third-party investigation and subsequent changes made to protect athletes going forward.
2. CrossFit creates an independent safety team to liaise with the PFAA continuously.
3. That Dave Castro be removed from his position in the Sports Team.

The most controversial of these demands appears to be the removal of Dave Castro, who has a storied career with CrossFit starting in 2srcsrc6. He’s credited with starting the CrossFit Games in 2srcsrc7 on his family ranch in Aromas, California. Since then, he’s programmed 16 Games and served briefly as CEO when founder Greg Glassman stepped down in 2src2src following allegations of racist and sexist misconduct. In 2src21, Castro was fired from his role as CrossFit’s General Manager of Sport just seven weeks before the 2src22 CrossFit Open (the only iteration of the Games season he wasn’t in charge of). He was hired back in 2src22 in an affiliate-focused role, eventually taking back control of the Games in 2src24.

Still, several notable figures seem to disapprove of the calls to part with Castro, including four-time Games winner Rich Froning Jr., and YouTubers Andrew Hiller and Sevan Matossian. “Better the devil you know, then [sic] the devil you don’t,” Hiller wrote on Instagram.

Few details have surfaced about the third-party investigation into Lazar ‘s death. On August 11, CrossFit, Inc. published a video statement from CEO Don Faul, in which he confirmed the investigation would be conducted.

This story was updated to include Dave Castro’s statement on September 6.