After weeks of silence and speculation, Luka Djukic, brother of the famous athlete Lazar Djukic, has finally decided to speak out. In a touching post on Instagram, Luka clarified some key points about the tragic death of his brother, who died during a CrossFit® competition.
With deep sorrow, Luka shared his thoughts and reflections on what happened, offering an intimate and heartbreaking look at a loss that has affected not only his family, but the entire CrossFit® community.
Here is the touching message from Luka Djukic
“I had everything in Lazar. He was my brother, my best friend, my idol, a racing partner, a training partner, someone I turned 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 have become even closer than I ever imagined when we were kids. On Thursday, August 8th, I lost everything, in the most traumatic and tragic way possible. While chasing our dream.
Letters and words cannot explain how I feel, and they will never be enough, so I will not try to express all of this on this platform. While I do not feel the need to say anything, provide updates or try to solve puzzles that are being created, there is a part of the community in this sport and people around me that deserve to hear my side of the story and some of my positions.
In the days leading up to the CrossFit Games, Lazar and I did the same route. We ran at a slightly slower pace than Thursday, and then swam across the lake to what we thought was the finish line.
Knowing how good a swimmer he is, I knew I had no chance of beating him in this workout, so we talked and tried a little strategy where I would try to cover him a little in the race, putting myself in front to 'break the wind'.
Then, once we got to the water, he would take the lead, trying to ‘break the water’ for me until I could keep up with him, and then we would try to finish as best we could individually.”
My swimming ability is not the best, so what I tried to do was simply lose as few positions as possible from the position I had gained after the race. I was passed by quite a few competitors and the leading group that entered water with me he separated in the first 200 meters of swimming, so I couldn't see clearly where Lazar was or how he was doing.
Once I crossed the finish line, my staff told me from behind the fence that I was somewhere between 15th and 18th. I was really happy about that. I asked, 'Who won?' and I heard 'Jelle,' and I said, 'Oh, really?' and I kept walking to see where Lazar was, expecting him to have been there for a while.”
When he said that, I felt a huge relief, I went to the bathroom ice, I did an interview and relaxed for a few minutes before one of the women CrossFit Games staff come to me and say, 'This was a mistake, we still have two timer chips left.'
By that time the stream had already stopped, I didn’t have my phone near me, so I didn’t see any of the footage. I heard that CrossFit staff were asking all viewers and media to leave, and in the hours that followed I realized we were waiting for someone to come look for the body that I would later identify from a photo.
Dave came into the room with Nicole Caroll, sat there for a while and said, 'We want to continue the Games as a tribute to your brother.' In the state of mind I was in at the time, I said a lot of things, but the most important ones were, 'I don't care, nothing's going to bring him back,' and 'I don't think I'm lucid, so this decision shouldn't be up to me.'
Dave responded: 'It's not up to you anyway.' The decision to continue with the Games was later presented as 'the family's wish'.
At midday on Friday, I received a call from the medical examiner's office, telling me that the doctor who performed the autopsy classified Lazar's physical condition as "extremely fit" and that there were no signs of a heart attack.
While I won't point fingers in this post or try to ruin anyone's name, I feel obligated, along with my family, to do everything in my legal power to ask questions, dig deeper into this case, and try to figure out who is responsible for the lack of response from the multi-million dollar organization whose primary job it is for the staff to make this weekend perfect.
On a smaller note, I don't really care which athletes continued to compete. I know that almost 90% of the athletes and sponsors live off this weekend, so it's not something anyone can judge.
Every athlete who has continued has done so for their own reason or belief, but what is really important here is that everyone should be aware that this could happen to anyone on the field. This time it happened to Lazar.
Where I go from here is something I'll try to keep private for a while, but I want to use this opportunity to say thank you to a huge part of the community that has kept us in their thoughts and sent their love. My brother loved the sport and was one of the best in the world at it.
He achieved incredible things from nothing, but he was also one of the best people around, with a heart bigger than a mountain. And that’s how he should be remembered.”
