A Serbian athlete participating in the CrossFit Games passed away while swimming in a Texas lake.
CrossFit CEO Don Faul said during a news conference that they were “deeply saddened” and were working with authorities on the investigation into the death of one of their athletes at Marine Creek Lake in Fort Worth.
28-year-old Lazar Dukic is the athlete. The medical examiner’s office had not yet listed reason of his death.
An official with the Fort Worth Fire Department said they were called out around 8 a.m. to assist police because there was “a participant in the water that was down and hadn’t been seen in some point in time.”
A participant was reported missing to event officers when they last saw them in the water and failed to surface, according to police reports.
According to the Fort Worth fire official, they weren’t present when the initial call was placed and instead arrived for search and rescue.
According to Faul, CrossFit developed a safety plan and had employees on duty for safety during the event. When The Associated Press contacted CrossFit on Thursday to get additional information about that safety plan, CrossFit did not reply.
According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the competition on Thursday consisted of an 800-meter (0.5-mile) swim and a 3.5-mile (5.6-kilometer) run. An estimated 10,000 people were in the vicinity for the games, which started on Thursday and were scheduled to end on Sunday, according to the newspaper.
Spaans, who knew Dukic for three years, described him as a driven athlete.
“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,” he said. “Just a really, really good dude.”
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