FORT WORTH, Texas — An athlete in the CrossFit Games died Thursday after reportedly drowning in a Fort Worth lake during the first day of competition in the multi-day event.
Lazar Ðukić, 28, of Serbia, was identified as the victim, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office.
The event where the incident occurred on Marine Creek Lake near Tarrant County College Northwest campus was the site of a run-swim event, according to the event schedule, and was away from the main competition space at Dickies Arena. The rest of the CrossFit Games were canceled following the death of Dukic on Thursday.
According to media reports, the death of an athlete during competition Thursday wasn’t the first time an athlete found themselves struggling while swimming during competition the CrossFit Games, though.
Endurance coach Chris Hinshaw on the podcast Mark Bell’s Power Project spoke about when CrossFit athlete Matt Fraser nearly drowned during a run-swim event during the Games in 2017, Men's Health reported.
"Fraser almost drowned one year in the Games," Hinshaw said on the podcast, as reported by Men’s Health.
"[He] enters the water first," Hinshaw recalled. "And one of the things that people don't understand, when you are running and you get into the water, you recover significantly faster by being prone. And so I told him, hit the water and be gassed, make sure you're out in front. And he did it, he's a soldier. So he hits the water... remember it's 500 meters, you have to swim basically diagonal to the shore, round a buoy... and swim across the original starting spot, parallel to the shore, hit a second buoy, and then come back to the boat ramp and be done."
"He passes the first buoys, and in first place, he starts getting passed as it's going down the long straightaway by the faster swimmers. So as a response, you know what he does? He drops in behind them and drafts, because it's 20 plus percent easier being number two. Which means that you can go 20 percent faster, or if you're the same speed, just save 20 percent of your energy. That's what he's learned. And so one of the things he had to do was accelerate his kick because the person was more than 20 percent faster,” Fraser continued.
Hinshaw said Fraser ended up not having the aerobic capacity required for the kick and his legs used all the oxygen.
"Next thing you know, Brent Fikowski, one of the podium finishers that year, grabs him and pulls him, because he was bobbing in the water. He was going to drown," he said.
Fraser was able to finish the swim, coming in fifth, Hinshaw said on the podcast.
Fraser was dubbed the “Fittest Man on Earth” five times in a row before he retired from the sport in 2021, according to Men’s Health.
Also in 2017, CrossFit reported Will Powell struggled and slunk beneath the water’s surface while competing in a run-swim-run event, a 500-meter swim sandwiched by two 1.5-mile runs, on Lake Monona in Wisconsin, and his fellow athletes Robert Caslin and Gus VanDerVoort came to his aid, keeping Powell afloat.
Caslin towed Powell to shore until a judge’s motorboat arrived to finish the rescue, according to the report.
Eventually, they all finished the race.
A GoFundMe has been started to support Đukić's family.
Former CEO of CrossFit Dave Castro expressed his condolences to Đukić’s family in a video online.
“It’s been an incredibly difficult day with the incident today with Lazar, and I’m mourning just like our community is. Just like the family is. And trying to focus on what we can do for them and how we can make it better with what we’re able to do with this small thing we have,” Castro said.
More coverage of the CrossFit Games from WFAA: