CrossFitter Luka Đukić Speaks Out After His Brother’s Tragic Loss of life
LAST MONTH, THE CrossFit Video games used to be temporarily suspended following the tragic dying of Serbian athlete Lazar Đukić for the length of a tear-swim match on the first day of competition. The Video games later persevered after an announcement from CrossFit, Inc., CEO Don Faul. “After speaking with the Đukić household and other athletes, we made the resolution to toddle ahead with the 2024 CrossFit Video games, dedicated to Lazar Đukić,” the recount read. Unexcited, some athletes— at the side of Đukić’s brother and fellow competitor, Luka—dropped out of the competition.
Following the tragedy, Luka Đukić equipped no public recount, aside from for a pair of posts to Instagram Tales that were archived on his profile. He broke that silence on September 5, sharing a prolonged written recount thru Instagram that expresses heavy displeasure with the manner CrossFit and Dave Castro, the embattled architect of the Video games, handled issues in the wake of his brother’s dying.
A CrossFit get shared an announcement with Males’s Health from Castro apologizing to Luka Đukić and his household. “I would perhaps perhaps soundless by no manner comprise mentioned that the resolution to continue the CrossFit Video games in August used to be ‘blessed’ by their household,” the recount reads. “At the time, the resolution used to be made to continue the Video games and allow our athletes to compete – and we revered those athletes who determined to withdraw. This resolution used to be made by CrossFit and I by no manner supposed to position the weight of this resolution on Luka, the Đukić household or our CrossFit athletes. I’ve by no manner been in a self-discipline like this ahead of and I fully made a mistake. I sincerely remorse any ache I’ve prompted.”
Đukić’s put up arrives at a time when CrossFit, Inc., remains to be battling criticism, with the Professional Fitness Athletes’ Association (PFAA), an advocacy crew for CrossFit athletes, anxious changes from the game’s governing body—at the side of a requirement Castro to be eradicated from his region. A third-celebration investigation into Lazar Đukić’s dying has no longer but concluded.
Luka Đukić Recalls his Brother’s Tragic Swim
Luka’s put up covers his brother’s final moments in gigantic component. He begins by outlining the technique he and Lazar formulated for the tear-swim match that opened the Video games. Lazar, the stronger swimmer of the two, would hover on the attend of Luka for the length of the tear to withhold vitality for the swim; Luka would then draft on the attend of Lazar in the lake.
Lazar in the waste outpaced Luka for the length of the tear, and the two destroy up apart for the length of the swim. Upon finishing the match, Luka wrote he wasn’t in a space to find Lazar. He says he stumbled on Dave Castro, the architect of the Video games, who instructed him that Lazar’s chip used to be registered as finishing the match (an announcement that turned out to be fallacious). After being reassured that his brother had carried out, Luka wrote, he left to initiating out bettering from the swim and give an interview.
“What I later saw on the video used to be that there were no attempts to place Lazar,” Luka wrote. “He used to be struggling with and went down discontinuance to two very unequipped volunteers (yes) on the paddleboard who didn’t saw [sic] him, and in point of truth discontinuance to the develop line.”
Luka’s recount later breaks down a conversation he had with Castro in his lodge room. Castro knowledgeable him of the belief to continue the CrossFit Video games “as a tribute to Lazar,” and Luka spoke back that he used to be no longer “pondering clearly so this resolution would perhaps perhaps soundless no longer be as much as me.” He writes that Castro replied: “It’s no longer as much as you anyways.”
Luka had other factors with CrossFit’s handling of the tragedy too. He wrote that he had one more conversation with Castro, this time just a few tribute to Lazar that used to be slated to take region. Luka mentioned that he requested Castro “to originate me [sic] stage of privateness I needed at that time,” adding that he didn’t want to be around media and other CrossFit athletes and didn’t want to be confirmed as fragment of the tribute on display cowl. “My wish used to be no longer revered,” he wrote. After that, Luka mentioned he refused to communicate to Castro or anyone else from CrossFit HQ, and he rejected invitations to other tributes for his brother.
He added that the medical knowledgeable contacted him to uncover him that an autopsy indicated that Lazar didn’t die from a cardiac match (a theory that made the rounds on the cyber web). “While I won’t point fingers on this put up and take a look at to shatter anyone’s identify,” Luka persevered, “I in point of truth feel obligated with my household to raise out the entire lot that is legally in my energy to ask questions, toddle deeper into this case, and take a look at to scrutinize whose fault is that there used to be no reaction from the multi-million buck organization, whose… job is to build this one weekend superb.”
Luka closed his recount with a tribute to his brother. “My brother cherished this sport and he used to be one of the well-known remark on this planet at it,” he wrote. “He jam some unreal achievements initiating from the rock backside but he used to be also one of the well-known remark other folks available with a heart bigger than a mountain.”
“And that’s how he would perhaps perhaps soundless be remembered.”
The Broader Response to the CrossFit Video games Tragedy
Other CrossFit athletes were vocal criticizing the organization following Lazar Đukić’s dying.
“The PFAA represents the interests of athletes competing in the CrossFit Video games season,“ the PFAA wrote in an Instagram put up. “The sport is built on the precept that athletes elevate out no longer know the total diminutive print of the events they take part in, but we consistently assumed if something went atrocious, they would perhaps place us. We were atrocious.” The PFAA’s three requires are as follows:
- Transparency between CrossFit and the PFAA in terms of the third-celebration investigation and subsequent changes made to present protection to athletes going ahead.
- CrossFit creates an self sustaining security team to liaise with the PFAA repeatedly.
- That Dave Castro be eradicated from his region in the Sports actions Group.
Essentially the most controversial of those requires appears to be like to be the elimination of Dave Castro, who has a storied occupation with CrossFit initiating in 2006. He’s credited with initiating the CrossFit Video games in 2007 on his household ranch in Aromas, California. Since then, he’s programmed 16 Video games and served temporarily as CEO when founder Greg Glassman stepped down in 2020 following allegations of racist and sexist misconduct. In 2021, Castro used to be fired from his goal as CrossFit’s Associated old Manager of Sport honest seven weeks ahead of the 2022 CrossFit Open (the remark iteration of the Video games season he wasn’t accountable of). He used to be hired attend in 2022 in an affiliate-targeted goal, in the waste taking attend preserve watch over of the Video games in 2024.
Unexcited, a lot of critical figures seem to disfavor of the calls to fragment with Castro, at the side of four-time Video games winner Rich Froning Jr., and YouTubers Andrew Hiller and Sevan Matossian. “Greater the devil , then [sic] the devil you don’t,” Hiller wrote on Instagram.
Few diminutive print comprise surfaced concerning the third-celebration investigation into Lazar ‘s dying. On August 11, CrossFit, Inc. printed a video recount from CEO Don Faul, right thru which he confirmed the investigation would be conducted.
This account used to be up as much as now to encompass Dave Castro’s recount on September 6.
