After a quick period of dropping in health, a 14-year-old junior Olympian died from a brain-eating amoeba.

Only weeks prior to his death, Michael Riley Jr. was attending a day of training, working out and swimming where he swam in a lake that doctors concluded was the way he contracted the fatal amoeba on August 13, according to New York Daily News.

The Texas honor student and track star was getting ready to start his first year in high school in Houston when he fell ill. His symptoms came on starting with a fever and headache then turning into intense headaches and neck pain. But it was when he started to show signs of being visibly disoriented that his family realized that his life was at risk.

Doctors say that the condition is rare and that only 120 cases have been recorded in the U.S. over decades. At this time, there is only a few known cases of survival from this particular brain-eating amoeba after being treated with experimental drugs.

On Saturday, his family announced that their son succumbed to the deadly brain infection.

“The tests tonight produced undesirable results which were coupled with the inability to function without support and proper blood flow to the brain,” the statement read. “Michael fought a courageous fight over the past week.”

Doctors said that while he was in the lake, a naegleria fowleri amoeba swam up his nose and immediately started to attack cells in his brain causing severe swelling.

Experts have said that the amoeba is highly uncommon, but when it is found, it is in warm freshwater, hot springs and unchlorinated pools. Although rare, it is still a condition that should anybody swimming in those areas should be aware. They are advising that any similar symptoms such as intense headaches, vomiting, confusion and fever should be reported immediately for treatment.