Dallas — A shocking mishap that unfolded on Thursday morning brought a terrible and tragic end to the CrossFit Games Serbian athlete Lazar Dukic was killed in a swimming competition at Marine Creek Lake in Fort Worth, Texas. 

CrossFit CEO Don Faul said he was “heartbroken” during the news conference claiming CrossFit is ‘depressed’ by the incident. Faul also said that they are collaborating with authorities to establish the circumstances that led to the sad death of their athlete. 

The corpses were later on identified by the medical examiner of Tarrant County as belonging to Lazar Dukic, a 28-year-old man from Serbia. The cause of death though is still undisclosed. 

The unfortunate event occurred at about 8 in the morning when the Fort Worth Fire Department was called to help the police. One of the officials informed the others that one participant was missing and they had not been seen for a while, they had drowned. 

The police said that event officers were told that a participant had gone missing after they were last observed in the water and did not resurface. They checked and found that the Fort Worth Fire Department was not on location when the call was made and requested them to come and conduct a search and rescue operation. 

Again, Faul insisted that awareness had been paid to the safety of the CrossFit with safety commissioners in the event. However, when asked by The Associated Press, the above organization did not elaborate on the safety measures needed. 

According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the event scheduled for Thursday was a 3. 5 mile run thereafter, the 800-meter swim. About 10,000 people for the games that began Thursday and were expected to last until Sunday. 

About the event, Kaitlin Pritchard who witnessed the event was interviewed by the newspaper. She was near the finish line with her back towards Dukic and saw him coming towards her. Pritchard found out that some like Dukic seemed to have changed the way they swam, probably because of the preceding run.

Pritchard also observed that there were people something on paddleboards on the lake but none of them were trying to make a rescue. “He should have been reachable, knowing the whereabouts the paddleboarders were and other matters” stated Bernice. 

Lazar Dukic is not only their rival but also the past water polo player and athlete representative of the FITAID sports drink company. FITAID’s general manager for Europe Gijs Spaans who had known Dukic for three years referred to him as a committed athlete who worked hard. 

Their work ethic was evident in his athletic endeavors throughout his athletic career; nevertheless, he remained sociable to fellow human beings, showing love towards people all the time, according to Spaans. ‘just a good guy…’ 

Spaans was watching the event through the live stream from the main website and did not see Dukic among other swimmers who were getting out of the pool. “I thought he had this,” Spaans said, noting that he began to wonder why the man’s name was no longer appearing among the finishers. “All the race, he was in the top five and kinda dominating the race and all of a sudden, I see all these people coming in finishing the race. ” 

Spaans continued, “He was an ambitious swimmer; he intended to win the race,” Spaans, 2005[187]. 

Unfortunately, such a talented athlete has been lost early in life; the CrossFit family and the World Sports Society are mourning the death of a talented sportsman, Lazar Dukic. While inquiries go on, one thing’s for sure, his driving desire and motivating force as a competitor will not be forgotten by anyone who crosses paths with him.