DALLAS, Texas – A participant in the CrossFit Games passed away while competing in a swimming event on a lake in Texas on Thursday morning, officials reported.
CrossFit CEO Don Faul stated during a press conference that they were “deeply saddened” and were collaborating with authorities to investigate the death of one of their athletes at Marine Creek Lake in Fort Worth.
The Tarrant County medical examiner’s office identified the athlete as 28-year-old Lazar Dukic from Serbia. The medical examiner’s office had not yet determined the cause of his death.
A Fort Worth Fire Department official said they received a call around 8 a.m. to assist police because “there was a participant in the water who was down and had not been seen for some time.”
Officers working the event were informed that a participant was unaccounted for after last being seen in the water and then not resurfacing, according to the police.
The Fort Worth fire official stated they responded for search and rescue but were not on site when the initial call came in.
Faul stated that CrossFit had a safety plan in place and did have safety personnel on site for the event. CrossFit did not respond on Thursday to an inquiry from The Associated Press seeking more details on that safety plan.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported the event on Thursday included a 3.5-mile run followed by an 800-meter swim. The newspaper said an estimated 10,000 people were in the area for the games, which began Thursday and were scheduled to run through Sunday.
Dukic played water polo and was an athlete ambassador for FITAID, a sports drink brand, said Gijs Spaans, general manager for FITAID in Europe. Spaans, who knew Dukic for three years, described him as a driven athlete and a “guy who walks into a room and lights up the room.”
“He had an incredible work ethic with his athletics career but, you know, always also made time to speak to people and make time for them,” Spaans said. “Just a really, really good dude.”
Spaans was watching a livestream of the swim from the main event site. He was looking for Dukic among the swimmers coming out of the water before realizing he was missing.
“I thought he had this. And then all of a sudden I was thinking, ‘Why is his name not showing up in the finishes?'” Spaans said. “All the race, he was in top five of the race. And all of a sudden I see all these other people coming in. I’m like, ‘What’s going on?'”
The CrossFit Games, first held in 2007, aim to “find the fittest athletes in the world,” according to the CrossFit website. The games change each year and the details are often not announced until just before the event.
Faul said the CrossFit community is like a family, adding, “We’re doing everything in our power during this tragic time to support the family, to support our community.”
Dukic’s biography on the CrossFit website states he was the third-ranked CrossFit athlete in Serbia and the 88th-ranked worldwide. Dukic finished ninth in his debut in the games in 2021, then eighth the next season and ninth in 2023.