Recent swim deaths

jimmy augustine

Hi folks. Im mildly embarrassed to be posting this. If it is not appropriate, moderator please feel free to take it down.

This is my second season racing and my first with EN. It might b that I am only now starting to pay attention but I feel like I am noticing swim deaths with growing regularity. Most recently I saw one in NY and one in the Oly Nationals. In both cases friends of the racer went on about how fit and prepared the racer was. Past that, it seems that no one knows what happened or how it can be prevented.

I did a forum search on the topic of swim death and couldn't find much on the topic. Might have just been user error.

So I guess what I am hoping for is input from more experienced better educated folks.

What is going on in the water? Has anyone done any study regarding deep water vs. wade starts, water temp, wave vs. mass start, wetsuit vs. non etc etc etc?

I am tempted to pick up one of those Co2 life jackets that you strap to your thigh. But given that I don't know what the problem is it seems hard to try and formulate precautions.

Paul Hough

USAT has commissioned an in-depth study on this issue results forthcoming. Tons of info on ST about this, but the consensus seems to be coming down to 1) cold water + 2) insufficient warm-up + 3) underlying heart issue previously not discovered. When you hit the cold water your body starts pulling the blood to the core at the same time you need it to start working. Heart rate is racing from an adrenaline filled start. There may or may not be an underlying heart issue (i.e., it can happen to anyone), so the best advice is to warm up whenever possible. Some folks are saying that USAT should pull the sanction from any race that doesn't permit a warm-up. If you can't warm-up, at least get water on your face and start within your ability.

Tom Glynn

From what I've read, deaths are pretty rare. Yes, they happen, but thousands and thousands of people compete in triathlons and other athletic events every year. It's pretty boring to report that someone died of a heart attack on their sofa, but when it happens at a public venue, it's much more newsworthy.

There are certainly risks associated with any sporting event, but the risk of doing nothing and being unhealthy, IMO, is a much bigger risk. Healthy looking people have heart attacks for a bunch of different reasons of course, but it doesn't mean you shouldn't adopt good habits.

As to the swim issues, most appear to be heart issues or genetic issues, not inexperienced swimmers or swimmers getting run over in mass starts.

[Deleted User]

It seems not so clear cut, unfortunately, but that's because we only have a small sample size to examine. IMO, a lot of the discussion on this issue right now is mostly speculation in the sense that we can't have full confidence of the causes unless if we have more cases to look at (but I hope that doesn't happen...) I agree that doing stuff like warming up and doing whatever you have to do to get comfortable in the water is a reasonable precaution. I get that it's logistically difficult for some race venues to provide a proper warmup time/area in the water, but I'd be all for pushing for more of that at races.

Coach Rich

All good thoughts and input. Also, I think the 24hr news cycle, social media, and triathlon being a relatively small world (ie, easy to find someone who was close to someone within just a few degrees of separation) mean that we, as a small population, are being made aware of these more frequently and much more quickly. At the end of the day, hard to say if these incidents are happening with increased frequency disproportionate to the growth of the sport, or we're just being shown more of the ones that have always been there, due to the factors above.

Nate Parady

So if you added up all the people on any given weekend who were going to participate in a Tri how many of those people were going to have a heart attack or some sort of episode regardless. So if they were going to stay home and eat pancakes then have an episode on the way to the couch or have that same episode in the middle of a lake during a tri.

I'm not making light of the situation, but I do agree with Rich. We are all very connected with information within our Tri community. It makes for a good headline that someone died during a tri, but I think it is a little overstated in terms of making someone think that a tri is a dangerous sport. By far, I think the most dangerous part of our sport is riding our bikes. Hitting 40+ MPH on your bike on a descent is freakin dangerous if you crash.

Counter to this would be how many people die in running races every weekend. Is that Ratio higher or lower than Tris? If Tri ratio is a lot higher than maybe there really is an issue.

The thought about swim deaths crossed my mind this past weekend standing on the beach just before my swim wave started. There were people from all ability levels, all body composition "shapes" so who was the most likely to have an episode and drown in the water? Who knows..I like to hedge my bets and go smooth and fast trying not to spike my HR that first couple of minutes. Not just for safety sake but race strategy. From what I have read the man who died at the AG nationals was a stud. So what happend to him. was he just destined to have an episode or did Tri cause his death. If he had had this episode out of water maybe the outcome would have been different or maybe not.
I could be totally wrong, but that's how I look at it.

I support USAT doing an in-depth study on all of this. Maybe there is some magic ratio of life guard to swimmer in the water that can be adjusted to help pull people out faster. One thought I had this past weekend during what was a lot of contact in the water for an Olympic was the safety issue over a mixed crowed of wetsuit versus non wetsuit people swimming together. This is something that USAT could control and adjust.

Scott Alexander

Somewhat-related, but a local triathlete died last night in a swim.

While this is very unfortunate for him, his family and friends; I guess my at-minimum takeaway (reinforced, actually) would be to NOT ever swim alone in open water.

www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Body-of-G...32545.html

Mark Roberts

Here is the article on Slowtwitch written by Dan Empfield.  He's obviously been in this sport a long time and has a lot of good points.

http://www.slowtwitch.com/Opinion/L..._2986.html

Its definitely going to make me reconsider my warmup and make sure that I'm ready to go when the gun goes off.

 

mgraffeo

Just remember, we actually do have a ton of numbers to run statistics on. The statistics are roughly

1 death in 75,000 for triathlon

1 death in 100,000 for marathons

to put that in perspective, the crude death rate (globally) is 8.37 per 1000, or 837 per 100,000 per year, which is roughly 2.3 deaths per 100,000 people in a given day.

It's taken me almost a year after Philly to feel somewhat comfortable with these numbers (and the Burlington death didn't help any!), but the risk of death in triathlon is very, very low.

That said, it's no consolation for the family and friends who live in the aftermath of someone who is that '1'...

[Deleted User]

Just for context, the numbers for traffic-related fatalities in the US are around ~10-15 deaths per 100,000 per year. So if you want to use that as a measure of risk, driving a car is essentially ~10 times riskier than doing a triathlon. We should still exercise precaution when doing either, but I think putting things into perspective matters here.

mgraffeo

Anson, another way to frame the data you present is that driving a car for a month is about as risky (from a mortality perspective) as doing a tri or marathon. Most of us don't give a second thought to the daily commute, because by and large, it's safe.

Airplane travel often gets the same reaction, because when someone dies as a result of air travel, it's due to a catastrophic failure, and everyone is aware of it. But the numbers tell us that flying is much safer than driving in a car (he says in an airport lounge about to cross the Atlantic...)

Dino Sarti

Net, net, open water is an uncontrolled environment. I have read reports and seen data that even strong, experienced divers and swimmers can get into trouble fast in the open water. Their is a little danger to it whenever you put yourself in water too deep to stand without an edge, wall or pier in easy reach. That is just a fact. Take precautions and beware.

Brenda Ross

http://www.policymic.com/articles/13194/why-i-also-almost-died-during-the-2012-new-york-city-ironman-triathlon

Nate Parady

@Brenda, very good article, The author is very lucky. Filed away in the back of my brain. Listen to your body...