The CrossFit Games Crowns 2024 Winners Following Tragic Death
THE 2024 CROSSFIT Games was fraught with tragedy. After Serbian athlete Lazar Đukić died during the first event, the status of the whole endeavor was in question. Some competitors made the decision to drop out (including reigning Men's champion Jeffrey Adler and women's champion Laura Horvath), while others continued to compete in honor of Đukić during the four-day championship, which ran from August 8 through 11 in Fort Worth, Texas.
Ultimately, women's GOAT Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr reclaimed her title, extending her CrossFit Games win record to seven. James Sprague won the Men’s division, becoming the tenth man to win the Games since its inception in 2007.
Toomey-Orr took off from Individual competition in 2023 after giving birth to her first child. (She still competed in the Teams division of the Games, earning second place.) Toomey-Orr won the 2024 Games in dominant fashion, winning six of the 10 events and never placing outside of the top 10. She beat runner-up Gabriela Migała by 151 points. Emily Rolfe of Canada took third with 770 points.
This was only James Sprague’s second CrossFit Games appearance, and he overcame a 60-point deficit in the span of just two events to Games veteran Brent Fikowski to clinch the title. Dallin Pepper, who placed fifth at last year’s Games, ended up in second place, and Fikowski of Canada took third, a mere 20 points behind Pepper. Sprague stayed consistent throughout the weekend, winning only one event but placing higher than tenth in seven of 10 events.
While the Games has wrapped, there will be more to learn about Đukić's untimely passing. An official cause of death has yet to be released. We do know the athlete competed in the first event on Thursday, August 8, a 3.5-mile run followed by an 800-meter swim in Marine Creek Lake. He was seen struggling in the water, roughly 100 meters from the finish line, on the live broadcast which has since been removed from YouTube by CrossFit.
Reporters on the scene relay that local authorities were called at around 8 a.m. CST to help find a missing person. After several hours, a body was recovered, later confirmed by CrossFit and various athletes to be Đukić. He was 28 years old. After his death, the first day of competition was suspended. On August 9, in a statement provided to Men's Health from CrossFit CEO Don Faul, the competition was restarted and dedicated to Lazar Đukić, citing conversations with the Đukić family and other athletes. Still, a handful of athletes—including Đukić’s brother, Luka, and the 2023 champions—dropped out of the competition in response to CrossFit’s decision to move forward with the Games.
On August 11, CrossFit CEO Don Faul released another official statement on the CrossFit Games Instagram account, this time as a video address. The company plan, he said, is to conduct a third-party investigation into its safety protocols.
“We will provide transparency around the investigation as it progresses,” Faul said. “I want to assure you that we are committed to implementing any necessary changes that are determined based on the results of this investigation.”
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