DALLAS — The CrossFit Games resumed on Friday after competitor Lazar Dukic died after going underwater during a swimming event in a Texas lake and failing to resurface.

CrossFit Games officials said in a post on social media platform X that they and the entire CrossFit community were “torn apart” and that their initial reactions were to “shut down,” “isolate” and “mourn,” but that they decided “the best way to mourn is to be together.”

After the rest of Thursday’s events were cancelled, competition resumed with a minute of silence and the announcement that this year’s games, which run through Sunday, would be dedicated to Dukic. Many of the athletes who lined up for the ceremony were in tears.

Here’s what to know about the tragedy and the CrossFit games:

Dukic was a 28-year-old competitor from Serbia. In a post on CrossFit Games X, he said that in addition to being “one of the most talented competitors in our sport,” he was “a son, a brother, and a friend to almost everyone who knew him.” He described Dukic as “fiercely competitive, incurably cheerful, and uncommonly kind.”

Dukic’s biography on the CrossFit website lists him as the third-ranked CrossFit athlete in Serbia and 88th in the world. He finished ninth at the 2021 Games for the first time, eighth the following season and ninth in 2023.

Dukic, who also plays water polo, was an athlete ambassador for a sports drink brand called FITAID, said Gijs Spaans, FITAID’s European general manager. Dukic was a keen athlete and “a really good guy”, the kind of person who “lights up the room”, Spaans said.

Fort Worth police said officers working at the event were told a participant was missing after he failed to surface after being last seen in the water. The fire department was called to assist around 8 a.m., and a dive team recovered Dukic’s body from Marine Creek Lake just after 10 a.m.

The Tarrant County coroner has not yet released Dukic’s cause of death.

Participants participated in a 3.5-mile (5.6-kilometer) running race before an 800-meter (0.5-mile) swim.

Spectator Kaitlin Pritchard told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that she was at the finish line of the swim event when she saw Dukic approaching. She said she was among the swimmers who changed their swimming patterns and thought it was because they were tired from the run.

Pritchard said he saw what he thought were lifeguards on paddle boards on the lake, but he didn’t notice any of them jumping into the water to try to rescue anyone.

CrossFit CEO Don Faul told The Associated Press on Friday that safety was a “paramount concern” and that officials were “implementing strict protocols for every event at the CrossFit Games.” He added that the organization had launched an investigation into Dukic’s death that would include an “independent third-party review.”

Faul said at a news conference the previous day that security personnel were present at the swim event but did not provide additional details. CrossFit did not immediately respond to a query seeking details on its security plan.

CrossFit was founded more than 20 years ago in a garage gym in Santa Cruz, California.

Its website describes it as a fitness program that includes workouts that include “constantly varied, high-intensity, functional movements.” CrossFit said Friday that it has more than 12,000 affiliated gyms in about 150 countries.

Darin White, director of the Center for Sports Analytics at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, said CrossFit’s popularity is due to the bonding atmosphere created by high-intensity workouts.

“It’s a whole community-based thing, you’re part of the gym, you’re part of that community and you encourage each other,” White said.

White said his training activities include everything from weightlifting to gymnastics to running to swimming to boating.

First held in 2007, the goal of the games is to “find the world’s fittest athletes,” according to the CrossFit website. They change each year, and details are usually announced well in advance. Competitors come from all over the world.

The City of Fort Worth announced on its website that 10,000 people are expected to attend this year’s games.

White said ESPN’s broadcast of the CrossFit Games in recent years has helped spread its popularity around the world. He said the games are similar to a decathlon, except there are a dozen or more separate events, and sometimes athletes don’t know which event they’ll be competing in next until minutes before it starts.

CrossFit said more than 343,000 participants from around the world participated in this year’s CrossFit Open, and the first stage of the season concluded with the crowning of champions.

___

Miller reported from Oklahoma City. Associated Press writer Josh Kelety in Phoenix and AP Sports Writer Pete Iacobelli in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed.