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A body was found in Marine Creek Lake in Fort Worth on Thursday morning during the CrossFit Games shortly after athlete Lazar Dukic was reported missing from the event. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner later identified the body as that of Dukic.
Neither CrossFit Games officials nor the Fort Worth police have confirmed the name of the person recovered from the lake, where a Thursday morning event including running and swimming was taking place.
The CrossFit Games confirmed that an athlete died during the competition, but refrained from providing a name in a Thursday morning post to X.
“CrossFit is deeply saddened by the death of a CrossFit Games competitor during the swimming portion of the Individual Event 1 at the 2024 CrossFit Games,” the post read. “We are fully cooperating with authorities and doing everything we can to support the family at this time.”
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A spokesperson for the Fort Worth Police Department told the Observer in an email that “we can confirm a person competing was last seen in the water and they did not resurface. It is further believed the person has been located and declared deceased at the scene.”
The 800-meter swimming event was live streamed. Clips that have surfaced online appear to show an athlete many social media users have referred to as Dukic who did not cross the finish line of the race and struggled to stay afloat before vanishing beneath the surface. Cole Learn, an athlete taking part in this morning’s competition, told WFAA that he recognized another competitor was in trouble during the event.
“I saw him sort of start to scramble. He started doing small turns and he was trying to get his head out of the water,” Learn told WFAA. “It was at that time we started screaming to the lifeguard [that] he needed help and in a few seconds he was under. He never came back up.”
According to reports, Dukic, 28, is a top CrossFit competitor from Serbia and was a semifinalist at the 2024 CrossFit Games Europe in May. On Wednesday, Dukic posted a picture to his Instagram page of him smiling as he wore a CrossFit jersey with the caption “Why not me? Let’s do this. @crossfitgames.”
All of Thursday’s remaining CrossFit Games in Fort Worth were canceled, with an announcement on the remainder of the weekend events still to come.
