CrossFit gym owner, who witnessed the drowning of Lazar Đukić, calls for sweeping changes

The water was too hot, the athletes were swimming into the sun, and now there is concern that the emergency crews on the lake to spot an actual emergency weren’t qualified to perform a rescue, or really so much as operate the paddle board they were on.

These are some of the concerns raised by CrossFit gym owner Rudy Trevino, 44, who was at the finish line of the 800-meter swim portion of the 2024 CrossFit games Thursday at Marine Creek Lake in Fort Worth when Lazar Đukić apparently drowned.

“There was a group of us watching and a woman pointed out, ‘Is he drowning?’ Yes. He was actively drowning,” Trevino said Monday morning in a phone interview. “He was showing all of the classic signs of drowning. Nose is high and the chin is up as far as possible; I hate to say this but (people drowning) are scared. It’s a very quiet thing. It’s not splashing or arms waving.”

Trevino, who owns a CrossFit-affiliated gym in San Antonio, is a lifeguard who has extensive background in water park safety at two facilities near that city.

Predictably, Đukić’s death has created a fault line in the tight CrossFit community; lawsuits are expected to be filed, and potentially expose mistakes made in the emergency planning procedures in “a sport” that has a reputation of being cavalier about safety.

Video replays of the tragedy show two people on paddle boards who served as spotters, or for rescue. There were also people on jet skis.

There is growing concern among those who participated, or watched, this portion of the CrossFit games that the people on the boards were neither adequately equipped to address a potential drowning victim, nor were certified for a rescue.

“In the years I worked at water parks we staffed EMTs and paramedics as the rescue people. There are lifeguards at the Olympics,” Trevino said. “I assumed they were qualified. Now it does seem like they were just volunteers.

“The people on the paddle boards and the jet skis are supposed to be water safety professionals, in hindsight the people on the paddle boards didn’t have the rescue buoys. I don’t know if they had whistles or radios. For sure, they didn’t have rescue equipment.

“There was no sufficient communication. Why didn’t those people have communication devices with them?”

CrossFit declined to address any specific questions Monday. It issued this statement to the Star-Telegram, “As of now we won’t have any comment until our third-party investigation is complete, and (we) do not have a timeline for that at the moment.”

CrossFit champion Katrín Davíðsdóttir of Iceland took to Instagram, and her 1.7 million followers, to express sorrow and outrage.

“For years, athletes have raised concerns about safety — whether it’s heatstroke, over programming, or other risks — but our voices haven’t been heard,” she wrote. “All we can hope for now is responsibility, accountability and ultimately that action will be taken within the organization that failed him.”

Water safety rescue professionals said to potentially save a man as large as Đukić, 28, would not require a big flotation device. A paddle board could potentially suffice, if they reach the person in time.

They also said, after looking at the video, that reaching him from where the paddle boards and jet skis were on the water could have been done in 10 to 20 seconds. Three different water safety professionals said Đukić should have been reached in time to prevent a drowning.

Trevino said when he noticed Đukić struggling he alerted a CrossFit “volunteer person.” He said he was told by two other people that it would be taken care of; he saw the person on the paddle board going to the general area of where Đukić was, and then lost sight of it.

“He was really so close to the finish line I thought maybe he had finished. That’s when I started to hope,” he said.

A Fort Worth Fire Department spokesperson said the department responded to a 9-1-1 call. The rescue crews located Đukić’s body in the water approximately two hours after he went missing.

Does this mean there were not EMT professionals on site, something that is the norm in nearly all sporting events? They are usually there in case of emergency.

A few other details that will receive scrutiny in the weeks ahead; the water temperature at Marine Creek Lake was 87 degrees. That’s two degrees above the line to be considered safe for these types of events.

This is the first time the CrossFit Games have been held in Texas; Carson, Calif and Madison, Wisc. were the previous locations.

Đukić was not wearing a swim cap, which are worn so event crews can spot the swimmers. Competitors said they believe he took the cap off, or lost it during his swim. Both are common in CrossFit.

The CrossFit swimmers were swimming into the sun on Thursday morning, making it harder for them to be spotted.

The event began with the run portion of the event followed by the swim. That’s atypical for mult-sport events, but not necessarily for CrossFit.

This is not the first time a CrossFit competitor struggled with the swim. In 2017, Mat Fraser, who had won the title of “Fittest Man on Earth” five times in a row, nearly drown during a lake swim but was saved by a competitor.

CrossFit is designed to go above and beyond the normal workout. CrossFit, which was started by former gymnast Greg Glassman, was launched in 2000 as “the sport of fitness.” It has grown into a global brand complete with gyms, sponsors, loyal athletes, and events.

Some critics believe CrossFit pushes competitors into unsafe places well beyond traditional sports.

“CrossFit jumbles up the run/swim, because we’re ‘tougher than triathletes,’” Trevino said. “I love what we do, and I have been affiliated with CrossFit for 10 years. I want it to survive. Change has to happen.

“There needs to be true oversight and consideration for safety. It’s the old bravado, ‘We’re tough and we can do it.’ That needs to go away.”