Almost a month after the tragic death of Lazar Dukic at the 2024 CrossFit Games, his brother, Luka, who was competing by his side, has come forward with heartbreaking yet forceful statements directed at the event's organization.

In this letter, where he narrates his experience of Event 1, where his brother lost his life, he details what happened with Dave Castro, CrossFit's Director of Sport, who was one of the spokespeople for the decision to continue with the Games.

After the death of the Serbian athlete in Event 1, Luka Dukic (Lazar's brother) did not make any statements, limiting himself to posting a couple of Instagram Stories. However, on September 5th, he decided to break his silence with a letter that reveals his deep dissatisfaction with how his brother's death was handled.

In this lengthy text, he recounts how Lazar eventually passed Luka during the run, and the two were separated during the swim. Luka explains how, after finishing the event, he couldn’t find Lazar. When he asked Dave about him, Dave responded that "the chip" had registered Lazar as finishing the event (which did not happen).

"What I later saw in the video was that there was no attempt to save Lazar," Luka wrote. "He was struggling and went down near two very poorly equipped volunteers (yes) on the paddleboard who didn’t see him, and very close to the finish line."

The words from Luka Dukic's post

In Lazar I had everything. He was my brother, my best friend, my idol, fellow competitor, training partner, someone I went to when I didn’t know what to do and someone I ran to when I had good news.

Following the path he created for both of us we grew even closer than I ever imagined we would be as kids.

On Thursday 8th of August, I lost all of it, in the most traumatic and tragic way possible. While we were chasing our dream.

Letters and words can’t explain how I feel, and they will never be enough, so I won’t try to express that on this platform.

While I don’t feel any need to say anything, give updates or try to solve puzzles that are being created, there is part of the community in this sport and people around me that deserve to hear my part of the story and some of my stands.

In days leading up to the CrossFit Games, Lazar and I did the exact same course.

We ran a little bit slower pace than we ran on Thursday, and then swam across the lake to what we expected will be finish line.

Knowing how good of a swimmer he is, I knew that there will be no chance of me beating him in this workout, so what we talked about and practiced a bit is me trying to cover for him a little in the run and be the one in front that “breaks the wind”, then once we reach the water he will take over, try to “break the water” for me as long as I can keep up and then try to finish as high as we can individually.

Once the race started, we quickly got into the front group of around 6-7 people, I ran in front of Lazar for some time and we were trying to use the plan that we said we might use if we feel like it can be beneficial.

After around 1k, Lazar got in front and went to close the gap to few guys in front, I stayed around 20 meters behind them but still close enough to have an eye on him and the leading group.

While entering the water, Lazar missed the entrance which cost him few seconds, so with me being very close to lead group in which he was in, we ended up entering the water at the almost same time. That was the last time I saw him.

My swimming capacity in the water is not great, so what I tried was just to lose as little spots as possible from the position I gained after the run.

I was passed by good amount of competitors and lead group that entered water with me separated themselves in first 200m of the swim so I couldn’t really see where Lazar is or how he is holding up.

Once I crossed the finish line I was let known by some of my coaching staff that was standing behind spectators fence that my finish is between 15th and 18th place, I was supper [sic] happy with that, I asked “won won?” and heard “Jelle”, I said “oh, no way” and kept walking to see where Lazar is because I was expecting him to be already done for some time.

I saw Anja who was clearly upset and scared and said that she thinks that she saw something on the stream and that Lazar is still not out of the water. Knowing that I didnt pass anyone during the swim, that sounded very strange but as I turned I saw Jeff Adler crossing the finish line so I tought [sic], “okay, front group probably went off the course, Lazar will be coming in anytime”.

However I quickly ran to see where Dave Castro is, found him leaning at the fence close to the lake and I asked, “what is going on, do you know where my brother is?”

Dave replied: “He was number 27, right? They said his chip crossed the finish line.”

When he said that I had huge relief, went to ice bath, gave an interview and chilled for few minutes before one of the ladies from the CrossFit Games staff came to me and said, “that was a mistake, we are still missing two chip timers.”

At that time stream was already taken down, I didnt have my phone anywhere near me so I didnt watch any of the footage, I heard that CrossFit Staff was asking all the spectators and media to leave and in next few hours I realised [sic] that we are waiting for someone to come and find the body which I later identified through the photo.

What I later saw on the video was that there were no attempts to save Lazar, he was fighting and went down close to two very unequipped volunteers (yes) on the paddleboard who didnt saw [sic] him and very close to the finish line.

After hours at the lake, I reached my hotel, still in my swimwear. 10 minutes into being in my hotel room I received a call saying that Dave Castro wants to talk to me.

Dave entered the room with Nicole Caroll [sic], sat there for some time and said: “we want to continue the Games as a tribute for your brother”.

In a shape I was in mentally at that moment, I said many things, but most important one were “I dont care, nothing will bring him back” and “I dont think I am thinking clearly so this desicion [sic] should not be up to me”. Dave replied “its not up to you anyways”.

Later, the desicion [sic] to continue the Games was presented as “the wish of the family”.

There was one more conversation with Dave Castro and it happened the next morning while I was sitting in my room with my long time sponsors and friends Craig and Jas. Knowing that there will be a tribute to Lazar that morning which all of the athletes will attend, I asked Dave cause I know he is overseeing everything, to provide me level of privacy I needed at that time. I wanted to come to the tribute (which at the time I didnt know how it will look like) but I didnt want any media around me, I didnt want to be around the athletes and I didnt want to be on the screen.

As my wish was not respected, after that I didnt have any other conversation with anyone from HQ, I was asked to meet Dave on Saturday night which I rejected and I was asked to attend closing ceremony which I rejected aswell.

On Friday mid-day I got a call from the Medical Examiner’s office who told me that the doctor that did the autopsy categorized Lazar’s body shape as ‘extremely fit’, and that there were no signs of a heart attack.

While I won’t point fingers on this post and try to ruin anyone’s name, 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 reaction from the multi-million dollar organization, whose most of the staffs job is to make this one weekend perfect.

On to the less important stuff, I don’t really care which athletes continued competing, I know that almost 90% of the athletes and sponsors live off this one weekend so it is not something that is up to anyone to judge.

Every athlete that continued had their own reason or belief, but what is really important here is that everyone should be aware that this could be anyone in the field. This time it was Lazar.

Even if I wanted to go deeper into this conversation I wouldn’t, because what it’s doing is just taking attention from where it should be, and that is: how could this happen on competition of this size, how could it happen on a live-stream and to someone who was very easy to keep track of as we was one of the few people in the lead.

Where do I go from here is something I will try to keep private for some time but I want to use this opportunity to say thank you to a big part of the community that had us in their minds and sent their love.

My brother loved this sport and he was one of the best in the world at it.

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.

What did CrossFit do after the death of Lazar Dukic?

As Luka Dukic detailed, the CrossFit Games continued as planned. First, a tribute was held with all the athletes one day after the Serbian athlete's death, although some participants disagreed with continuing the competition and withdrew.

Several reports indicate that there was a possibility of canceling the competition and distributing the winnings equally among the athletes, which would have benefited Lazar Dukic's family more significantly. However, this did not happen, and some participants were upset.

In the end, Tia-Clair Toomey and James Sprague won the title of the fittest woman and man on the planet in an event that will always be remembered for the death of Lazar Dukic.