Lazar Dukic CrossFit Games 2024: CrossFit athlete vanishes and drowns during live-streamed swimming competition

CrossFit CEO Don Faul said during a news conference that the organization was “deeply saddened” by the death of one of their athletes, and they were working with authorities on the investigation into the death. An official with the Fort Worth Fire Department said they were called out around 8am to assist police because there “was a participant in the water that was down and hadn’t been seen in some point in time.”

He said the fire department was not on the scene when the initial call was made. The athlete’s body was found about an hour later. 

Faul added that CrossFit had safety personnel on site at the event. He said: “We’re doing everything in our power during this tragic time to support the family, to support our community”.

The local medical examiner’s office named the athlete who died as 28-year-old Lazar Dukic from Serbia. Ðukić went missing during the competition which was being live-streamed on Thursday morning (8 August) according to The Barbell Spin, a CrossFit news organization at the site of the games.

The remainder of Thursday’s games were canceled following the incident. The competition began on Thursday and is slated to go through Sunday, with most of the events taking place in the Dickies Arena in Fort Worth. Dukic is considered to be Serbia’s best CrossFit athlete and was recently declared a semifinalist at the 2024 CrossFit Games Europe.