CrossFit athlete Lazar Dukic dies during competition at Texas lake

DALLAS, Texas — A competitor within the CrossFit Video games died whereas competing in a swimming occasion Thursday morning on a Texas lake, officers mentioned.

CrossFit CEO Don Faul mentioned throughout a information convention that they had been “deeply saddened” and had been working with authorities on the investigation into the dying of one among their athletes at Marine Creek Lake in Fort Price.

The Tarrant County medical expert’s workplace recognized the athlete as 28-year-old Lazar Dukic of Serbia. The medical expert’s workplace had not but listed his reason for dying.

An official with the Fort Price Hearth Division mentioned they obtained referred to as out round 8 a.m. to help police as a result of there “was a participant within the water that was down and hadn’t been seen in some time limit.”

Officers who had been working the occasion had been advised a participant was unaccounted for after final being seen within the water after which not resurfacing, police mentioned.

The Fort Price hearth official mentioned they responded for search and rescue and weren’t on the scene when the preliminary name was made.

Faul mentioned CrossFit had a security plan and did have security personnel on web site on the occasion. CrossFit didn’t reply Thursday to an inquiry from The Related Press looking for extra particulars on that security plan.

The Fort Price Star-Telegram reported the occasion on Thursday included a 3.5-mile (5.6-kilometer) run adopted by an 800-meter (0.5-mile) swim. The newspaper mentioned an estimated 10,000 individuals had been within the space for the video games, which started Thursday and had been set to run by way of Sunday.

Dukic performed water polo and was an athlete ambassador for FITAID, a sports activities drink model, mentioned Gijs Spaans, common supervisor for FITAID in Europe. Spaans, who knew Dukic for 3 years, described him as a pushed athlete and a “man who walks right into a room and lights up the room.”

“He had an unimaginable work ethic along with his athletics profession however, you already know, at all times additionally made time to talk to individuals and find time for them,” Spaans mentioned. “Only a actually, actually good dude.”

Spaans was watching a livestream of the swim miles away on the most important occasion web site. He was searching for Dukic among the many swimmers popping out of the water earlier than realizing he was lacking.

“I believed he had this. After which unexpectedly I used to be pondering, ‘Why is his identify not displaying up within the finishes?'” Spaans mentioned. “All of the race, he was in high 5 of the race. And unexpectedly I see all these different individuals coming in. I am like, ‘What is going on on?'”

“He was in it to win it,” Spaans added. “He was a terrific swimmer.”

The mission of the CrossFit Video games, first held in 2007, is to “discover the fittest athletes on this planet,” the CrossFit web site mentioned. It says the video games change yearly and sometimes the small print will not be introduced till simply earlier than the occasion.

The CrossFit group is sort of a household, Faul mentioned.

“We’re doing all the things in our energy throughout this tragic time to assist the household, to assist our group,” Faul mentioned.

Dukic’s biography on the CrossFit web site says he was the third-ranked CrossFit athlete in Serbia and the 88th-ranked worldwide. Dukic completed ninth in his debut within the video games in 2021, then eighth the subsequent season and ninth in 2023.

The Related Press contributed to this report.