Twenty-eight-year-old CROSSFIT athlete Lazar Dukic talked about how excited he was to take part in the annual event just hours before he drowned during the competition.
Dukic drowned in the first event of the CrossFit Games on Thursday morning.
As part of the swim-run challenge, he had to run 3.5 miles and swim 800 meters ahead of the race.
CrossFit fans watched the live stream at 8 a.m. and saw Dukic gasping for air and struggling to stay above water.
Later, police said they had responded to a drowning call soon after and Dukic had died at the scene.
Dukic was on social media getting ready for the games just hours before he died.
His smile was visible in the picture, and he wrote, “Fun chat with @tommymarquez & @laurenkalil for @talkingelitefitness.”
Last but not least, Dukic shared a picture of himself backstage at the event along with the words “Kicking things off 2pm Europe Time” and a link to the live stream.
He also shared a touching video about his brother less than a day before he died.
The video was a mix of clips of him training and himself answering questions with the cross-training recording app Wod Proof.
To answer a question about his brother Luka, Dukic said with a smile, “I know someone works next to me all the time.”
“He pushes me hard, both mentally and physically and I can’t let my brother beat me,” Dukic said.
“It’s a great push to have him and I was so happy to see him qualify,” he told Luka.
Luka, Dukic’s brother, is also a CrossFit athlete and was present at the events with him.
In his last interview, Dukic talked about how he got ready for the games and how he got into a competitive mood.
“I just say to myself – your competitors are working hard and you need to work hard,” he added.
“For me, the most important thing is to train harder than you race.”
“Stay consistent, work hard, and you’ll be ready.”
“We are devastated by the death of Lazar Đukić,” the CrossFit Games wrote about Dukic on X. Our thoughts and prayers are with Lazar’s family, friends, and fellow athletes.
“Out of respect for the family and in cooperation with the Fort Worth Police Department, we will share updates when possible.”
It is tragic that Dukic drowned during the first event of this year’s CrossFit Games.
When people watched the live stream, they saw him struggling to stay above water before he disappeared.
First responders got to the scene right away and found a body in Marine Creek Lake in Fort Worth, Texas, only an hour into the competition.
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner told WFAA News, a local ABC affiliate, that the body that was found was Dukic.
Later that day, CrossFit CEO Don Faul talked to reporters and told them what had happened. He did this while crying.
“We’re doing everything in our power during this tragic time to support the family, to support our community,” Faul told us.
He also said that CrossFit was working with the police on an ongoing investigation.
Cole Learn, another athlete at the event, shared his heartbreaking thoughts on the tragedy.
Read more about Lazar’s death at the CrossFit Games in a video posted to Learn’s Instagram Story. The video showed him crying as he screamed for lifeguards.
“We were pretty far away so it was tough to do anything else but we were yelling for lifeguards.”
Learn said that the athletes kept calling for lifeguards but that the lifeguards couldn’t hear them.
“I’m absolutely devastated and that’s not something that I wanted to watch,” he told me.
Due to Dukic’s death, the rest of Thursday’s events were canceled. However, it is not clear if the games will go ahead as planned on Friday and Saturday.