A link to the article you are referring to might help getting some more response: https://www.slowtwitch.com/...o_far_away_7351.html

Sarah has been very transparent and that is a really a good thing and kiddos to her. I hope she continues this approach as it should help other athletes make better decisions.

I have been asking around Hawaii for years about long-term health effects of various pro athletes - mainly because I was a rep for Boston Sci/Guidant/Biotronik in implantable pacemakers/defibs/crt and I am interested in the subject. None of the conversations have yielded any real significant setbacks although most athletes are far too young still. There are inherent risks about being a professional athlete but I don't think long-term irreversible damage is something to be taken lightly and not enough education happens on the subject. Having dated a few collegiate runners it is always amazes the injuries they ran thru. Like where was the doctor and the sort of "concussion protocol" to protect the athletes. I really respect some of the younger athletes who are doing a good job of taking care of their body. Granted the body of education is much larger now but it is nice to see regardless.

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I love how a guy in the comments decided to make a diagnosis, apparently ignoring Sarah's second response...

Sarah: Oh good, thank you. I am a little overwhelmed. But there are kind of two sides to it. It was heartwarming to me how much concern there was for my well-being. But I also realize, without contexts of someone’s medical history, without understanding what the nutrition plan was, what the data suggests, there is this tendency to want to come to conclusions without full information. And I think I would like to encourage people to step back and realize, it is easy to make a judgment about a performance without fully understanding the facts.

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808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo

I saw a FB post of Matt Russell posing with a former pro triathlete who was in need of a heart transplant. I can't remember who it was, but I think he and Matt used to train together. I wonder if the years of training took a toll on him and was the cause. That's the kind of stuff that has made me start thinking real hard about all of the racing I used to do. I love this sport, but man I don't want to be 65 and worse off than I would have been had I just stayed on the couch and continued to eat bon bons. :D

I think she is still in denial. Not only in how bad off she was, but if she could still make it to the finish. 700m.....essentially 7 football fields. No way she was going to make it that distance in the state she was in.

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

Having "lights dim" truly sounds scary to me. Very scary

She's in denial and blaming others - Obviously hasn't watched the video yet - that guy didn't stop her. He touched her arm to get her attention to see if she was OK. I would think an agent or sponsor would work with her as this is not a good pr situation if she continues down this path. Even if she believes he stopped her, as a business (which pro athlete is), it would be better to publicly thank the guy for caring and move forward.

Not to make light of the situation (see what I did there!), but having the "lights dim" is the exact way I would describe your run of the mill bonk. Maybe its just me.....

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

I had that before when I got hypothermia.
Physical pain was unbearable, I wished the switch just goes off and turn off the light.
I was saved right before that happened though.

well you saw how quickly she recovered ... so the question is not if she would have made it it would have been the question when and personally i guess it would likely not been top 2 . but again we dont know .
i totally understand her point of view.
at the same time one also has to understand the view of the medical team.

Paula Newby Fraser pretty much collapsed at the end of Alii Drive in 1995, spent 20 minutes recovering and still placed 4th. We don't know how that would have turned out if the medical team had tried to pull her...
https://www.velopress.com/...world-championships/

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Karen ST Concierge

100%. This interview, well actually her answers are kind of scary. And I don't know if this is known or not but I bet she hasn't seen footage of herself.

I agree. At the same time like it or not health and safety concerns have changed in 20 years.
That's why I say i cant fault the medical team.

It looks like to me he grabbed her and stopped her. I still don’t think she would have made it 700m in that condition but it seems it did stop her

Would have been interesting if she was asked why didn’t her coach, who I believe she said was there, suggest she slow down 3 miles walker with such a substantial lead

The video looks really terrible -- if this was boxing, you'd have to stop the fight. Here's the very end, but she was like this for a while:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gcvb9hM2iRo

It sucks that she was pulled so late in the race. Maybe she could have made 700m, maybe not. The amateur didn't seem to cause her to fall, and it's not fair to suggest he was the issue. If anything, the amateur was holding her up and it was the worker in orange pants grabbing her from behind that ended things for her.

It's hard to second guess anyone when you watch the video. Her data and medical history may not indicate anything was happening, but you'd never know that from watching her -- that looks like heat stroke, or even a regular stroke. By stopping her, they might have prevented a head injury from a fall, because she was weaving all over the course. A friend of mine got heat stroke and a thankfully mild heart attack because she was not pulled from the course in a similar situation.

Then again, I know a guy in his 50's who was moving like that at the end of the swim in a 70.3. We all thought he was having a stroke or heart attack, but it turned out that it was cold water in his ears that screwed up his equilibrium so he couldn't stand. After sitting for a minute and letting the ears settle, he was better and finished the race. You wouldn't have blamed the medical team for pulling him out, but he was able to communicate that it was just vertigo.

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<The Dew Abides>

I guarantee this thread gets locked.

This comment seems dangerous. Motor control loss in a heat wave should always be taken extremely seriously. It's possible to progress extremely rapidly from a condition that can be quickly recovered from, to dead. Just because a test doesn't show long-term damage doesn't mean that your health wasn't being threatened.

I've had a crush on Sarah from day one. I'm also really happy that she's got her position sorted too, with tilted arm cups and high hands ;)

That said, and even though I think she's saying what she truly believes, it would probably be better strategically to just call it heat stress, take responsibility, and let that poor amateur who tried to help her go in peace.

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

also how she says the heat stress from Kona and this event were unrelated. Once a heat victim, always a heat victim, and first in last out for the heat stress. This new event could be the result of cumulative heat injuries, which may be why it presented so differently to her.

Perhaps she's lucky the body disconnected, she reduced the heat load once that started happening.

Edit: What tests does one do after an event like this to rule out damage?

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

The amateur didn't seem to cause her to fall, and it's not fair to suggest he was the issue. If anything, the amateur was holding her up and it was the worker in orange pants grabbing her from behind that ended things for her. //

I've watched the video several times, and the AG'er did not make her fall, neither did the volunteer. They were actually holding her up, until she just fell into pile. She has her idea of where she was at, and then there is the reality we can all see. Doesnt have to have been heat stroke, certainly heat exhaustion, coupled with a severe nutritional problem. In retrospect, she probably could have just stopped, drank some cokes, and easily made it to the finish in 1st or 2nd. But here is the issue, she could not comprehend any of that at the time, or she would have done it. I believe she did not know where she was at, or how far left to go at that moment. Her actions show that was the case. It looked a lot like Paula or Julie Moss back in the day. But Julie was yards from the finish line, and was able to crawl the rest of the way. Paula was alert enough to know to just sit down on Alli drive, drink, rest, then wander to the finish line after recovering for about 20 minutes.


Both of those women still had their wits, knew where they were on the course, how far to go. If Sara had known all those things, had her wits, she would have done what others have in that spot, she didnt. And for those that think she could have just easily have made it those last 7 football fields, go have a look at Johnny Brownlee when he was doing the same exact thing Sara was, all the same outward signs in each of them. Oblivious to where they were, only Johnny had the good fortune of having his brother right behind, hold him up, carry him a few yards, then throw him across the line. Sara was just too far out for that, but she could have done what Paula did, had she had an inkling of he condition and the task ahead..

And, add to that, the cognitive dissonance of saying in the same interview, about Kona.... "And I think I honestly did some brain damage in that race. For about 2 weeks after it was like having a hangover. I had some cognitive problems, I had a headache, and my brain was just slowed down. The difference being that there were clear physiological signals I was ignoring. And I know exactly where we went wrong in Kona"

So look, I'm no armchair expert either way, but just from her own claims, she says "I think I may have cause myself brain damage in a race" and "don't fret about this other race, it might look bad but I'm fine." - Is that a fair rehash or am I spinning that inaccurately?

Here's link to longer video of the event.

She's lucky she didn't fall of the bridge and into the river.

There are also two video interviews of Sarah, here and here.

If there was a race doctor who witnessed her condition, she would have been pulled from the race well before she collapsed. IM may need to develop protocols for these type of situations -- having personnel who are trained to recognize these conditions and having way to assess the athlete's condition. I don't think True would have passed a basic mental evaluation when she collapsed.

Edit: I'm sure IM has carefully considered the issue of athlete safety and has a number of policies in place. But here is another one to consider: when race announcers say that an athlete's condition such that they will remember nothing of what is happening, maybe it is time to put in a call to medical personnel on the course.

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It doesn't really matter what Phil is saying, the music of his voice is the appropriate soundtrack for a bicycle race. HTupolev

I would completely disagree here - if I drop dead at 65 (or 55), at least I would have enjoyed my journey to the grave. I wouldn't swap the joy I had doing that for another 10 or 20 years sitting on the couch doing nothing. Nobody knows the future and there are risks in doing anything.