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St. George Swim Death
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Anyone have any word on what happened and who he/she was?

Tragic

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Tough Times Don't Last, Tough People Do.
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Re: St. George Swim Death [TriSpencer] [ In reply to ]
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Probably a different person but a friend of mine who was racing had to do CPR on a fellow racer. Guy collapsed during bike right after climb, she said at mile 21. She also happens to be a nurse anesthetist. Guy had thready pulse and agonal breathing. Guy was in 60-64 AG. I'm guessing cardiac.
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Re: St. George Swim Death [TriSpencer] [ In reply to ]
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According to this article:

https://www.thespectrum.com/...riathlon/4912261001/

the swim and bike incidents involved separate people.
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Re: St. George Swim Death [chrisesposito] [ In reply to ]
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chrisesposito wrote:
According to this article:

https://www.thespectrum.com/...riathlon/4912261001/

the swim and bike incidents involved separate people.

What a horrible article to characterize deaths in Triathlon as common. wtf.

Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.
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Re: St. George Swim Death [hubcaps] [ In reply to ]
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hubcaps wrote:
Probably a different person but a friend of mine who was racing had to do CPR on a fellow racer. Guy collapsed during bike right after climb, she said at mile 21. She also happens to be a nurse anesthetist. Guy had thready pulse and agonal breathing. Guy was in 60-64 AG. I'm guessing cardiac.

Good on your friend for stopping! In the heat of competition there are a lot of folks who might ride right by and not sacrifice their race.

ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
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Re: St. George Swim Death [Titanflexr] [ In reply to ]
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She was secretly wanting race to be cancelled and was very undertrained. She just wanted to finish the race. Maybe some fate played a roll in this.

There was a story a few years back on two RNs who did chicago marathon. A perennial chicago marathoner had collapsed in front of them and they started CPR and saved his life. Doing the race probably saved his life since CPR was started ASAP.
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Re: St. George Swim Death [TriSpencer] [ In reply to ]
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I don't know much, but my wife saw them perform compressions for quite a while. She's pretty shaken up. Really shitty. It's pretty surreal thinking this was a real person who showed up, checked his bike in where I did, struggled to put his wetsuit on, and started down the ramp just before me. We've been talking about it most of the day. So sad for his family.

JustinDoesTriathlon

Owner, FuelRodz Endurance.
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Re: St. George Swim Death [Titanflexr] [ In reply to ]
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Titanflexr wrote:
Good on your friend for stopping! In the heat of competition there are a lot of folks who might ride right by and not sacrifice their race.

I witnessed that kind of disregard in a 100 mile canoe race I did years ago. Guy fell out of his canoe and couldn't swim. It only took me a couple minutes to get his boat righted and him back in it. He never said a word to me. My Boy Scout training from many years earlier kicked in as we trained for these things.
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Re: St. George Swim Death [Bumble Bee] [ In reply to ]
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Bumble Bee wrote:
Titanflexr wrote:
Good on your friend for stopping! In the heat of competition there are a lot of folks who might ride right by and not sacrifice their race.

I witnessed that kind of disregard in a 100 mile canoe race I did years ago. Guy fell out of his canoe and couldn't swim. It only took me a couple minutes to get his boat righted and him back in it. He never said a word to me. My Boy Scout training from many years earlier kicked in as we trained for these things.

Going off topic. But getting in a canoe when not being able to swim is dumber than 2 dumb things tied together.
To do a 100 miler in one without being able to swim? 100x dumb.
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Re: St. George Swim Death [BobAjobb] [ In reply to ]
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General reply to thread

1. Was this rolling or TT start which I assume is yes?
2. Was there an opportunity to warm up?
3. What was water temp?

Hard for the family. Every race I go to I always say goodbye to my family like I may not come back. It is crazy at an intellectual level that I feel I need to do that and still go to race, but life is full or risk and rewards. Not sure most of us would want to die during the swim leg but it is a potential risk we take albeit small
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Re: St. George Swim Death [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
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devashish_paul wrote:
General reply to thread

1. Was this rolling or TT start which I assume is yes?
2. Was there an opportunity to warm up?
3. What was water temp?

Rolling every 5s, no, 61 I believe.

JustinDoesTriathlon

Owner, FuelRodz Endurance.
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Re: St. George Swim Death [justinhorne] [ In reply to ]
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justinhorne wrote:
devashish_paul wrote:
General reply to thread

1. Was this rolling or TT start which I assume is yes?
2. Was there an opportunity to warm up?
3. What was water temp?


Rolling every 5s, no, 61 I believe.

It is probably not helpful having no opp to get in the water to get moving before at 61F, however, rolling start also offers the option to ease into the event too.
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Re: St. George Swim Death [TheStroBro] [ In reply to ]
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TheStroBro wrote:
chrisesposito wrote:
According to this article:

https://www.thespectrum.com/...riathlon/4912261001/

the swim and bike incidents involved separate people.


What a horrible article to characterize deaths in Triathlon as common. wtf.

i didn't see the word "common" used in the article. what i read was:

"Deaths in extreme endurance sports are not rare. According to reports from various news outlets there were seven recorded deaths in IRONMAN Triathlons, and 20 deaths among all other triathlon events, in 2019. The swim course has also been acknowledged by IRONMAN racers to be one of the most dangerous aspects of the race."

i don't think that's a terribly unfair characterization. you could of course write nearly the same thing about a marathon. 1 in 75,000, if i remember correctly. IM mortality may be higher than the typical triathlon.

if ironman services, say, 425,000 athletes a year (just a wild guess, but, i'm multiplying 170 races x 2,500 athletes), then 7 deaths meant you had a 1-in-60,000 chance of dying. is that "not rare"? i don't know. you tell me.

Dan Empfield
aka Slowman
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Re: St. George Swim Death [Slowman] [ In reply to ]
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I suppose we can disagree on what "not rare" means. I would say that's a relatively rare occurrence.

Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.
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Re: St. George Swim Death [TheStroBro] [ In reply to ]
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TheStroBro wrote:
I suppose we can disagree on what "not rare" means. I would say that's a relatively rare occurrence.

I'd view it as relatively rare when compared to routine things

- 1 in 2 people get cancer in the life

- 3.58 million deaths in the USA last year from heart disease. = worse than 1:100 people die from it each year

- cancer deaths not far behind heart disease

So the fatality rate from Tri is a whole lot better (much rarer) than those.
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Re: St. George Swim Death [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
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The no swim warm up was really a bummer. I suspect covid restrictions is why they didn't allow it. There was definitely an area to the right of the boat ramp available for warm ups. They should've just allowed us to warm up there. There was no social distancing at the swim start anyway. No one listened to the announcers when they asked us to line up on the markers 6ft apart. We did get masks at least. Walking through "puddles" at the swim start with no warm up was gross, but not surprising either. The finish area was a zoo. They gave us KN95 masks to wear after and everyone just ditched them outside of the athlete tent areas. I cant blame anyone. Those were super hard to breathe out of. Especially post race. I hope ironman just takes this lesson learned for Worlds. Just give us a swim warmup of some kind.
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Re: St. George Swim Death [Rage KG] [ In reply to ]
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In my experience, ironman races rarely have a swim warm-up. I wouldn't plan on them having one at worlds.
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Re: St. George Swim Death [imswimmer328] [ In reply to ]
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imswimmer328 wrote:
In my experience, ironman races rarely have a swim warm-up. I wouldn't plan on them having one at worlds.

in my opinion, a swim warm-up is a swim safety best practice.

Dan Empfield
aka Slowman
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Re: St. George Swim Death [imswimmer328] [ In reply to ]
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imswimmer328 wrote:
In my experience, ironman races rarely have a swim warm-up. I wouldn't plan on them having one at worlds.

I have not raced 70.3 Worlds since 2015 which is when they were introducing the swim smart program with warmup areas in all venues (or were supposed to). They have warmup areas at Zelle Am See that year and 2014 they did at Tremblant Worlds. Did they get rid of warmup areas in the last few (Nice, South Africa, Australia)?

Probably by Sep all the Covid19 distancing stuff outdoors gets lifted in much of the developed world anyway due to enough vaccine penetratiion so then people not regarding distancing at race starts and finishes becomes less of a worry overall.
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Re: St. George Swim Death [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
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So in ironman's defense, I havent raced too much. However, I did st George in 2017 where there was no swim warm up for amateur athletes, sounds like that hasn't changed. I fail to see why they wouldn't have one at this race but then have one at worlds. If they have one, awesome, all I was trying to say is they definitely haven't done it in the past, so plan to not have one just in case.
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Re: St. George Swim Death [Slowman] [ In reply to ]
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I agree absolutely. Which is why I was warning whoever I replied to that they might want to plan ahead in case there isn't one at worlds. To my knowledge, they've never done a swim warm-up at the st George 70.3
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Re: St. George Swim Death [justinhorne] [ In reply to ]
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61 is not warm! I did my first OWS of the year today in 58 degree water. Took me about 4 minutes for things to get numb enough that I could actually swim.

I know the logistics are tricky, but still...

Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team
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Re: St. George Swim Death [Slowman] [ In reply to ]
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Slowman wrote:
imswimmer328 wrote:
In my experience, ironman races rarely have a swim warm-up. I wouldn't plan on them having one at worlds.


in my opinion, a swim warm-up is a swim safety best practice.

I thought IM acknowledged that a warm up swim was best practice when they did a review a few years ago after other swim deaths. I'm not sure how they allow for a swim warm up and a rolling (line-up) start. I imagine people would forego the warm up to get a 'better' place in line.
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Re: St. George Swim Death [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
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World’s will likely be a warm swim too. I would guess not wetsuit legal

Team Zoot So Cal
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Re: St. George Swim Death [Slowman] [ In reply to ]
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I thought that a swim warm-up area was one of the conditions of the swim safe initiative a few years back.
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