Lazar Dukic drowned on Thursday morning in the Marine Creek Lake, in Fort Worth, Texas, while competing at the 2024 CrossFit Games. On Sunday morning, people gathered for his memorial service that took place by the lake where he was last seen competing.
The memorial service was held by Brian Friend, a journalist who’s been in the CrossFit media landscape since 2018 and provided analysis and commentary focused on the Sport.
Yesterday, Brian Friend said he will “no longer be associated with anything related to this year’s CrossFit Games.”
“While I do believe that he [Lazar Dukic] would have wanted people to continue to compete and to live their lives, I do not believe that he would be ok with what is going on this weekend after what happened to him. I can no longer be a part of it.”
And this morning, he began Lazar Dukic memorial service with a brief statement from the Serbian CrossFit community and the Belgrade Games. “Serbia is grieving and suffering because a young life was extinguished far too early the entire CrossFit Community not just in Serbia but in this region suffered a loss and we don’t know how we will recover neither as a people or a sport.”
Following the statement, the national anthem of the Republic of Serbia was played.
With tears in his eyes, Brian Friend said a few words from his heart and experiences shared with Lazar Dukic. “Thank you for the way you loved every single one of us. We’re grateful that you’re resting peacefully now and we will all do our best to honour you as we continue on with our lives.”
Someone else also shared more stories about their moments with Lazar Dukic that were really heartfelt. “For me it didn’t really matter how good or how bad he was on the floor, it matter how good of a person he was to me,” said video creator Joseph Somakian.
You can support Lazar’s family with the GoFundMe campaign that has been established.
