Sad to report that a competitor died yesterday during the sprint distance Pewaukee Triathlon yesterday:
Milwaukee man dies in Pewaukee triathlon event
By Associated Press
Posted: July 13, 2009 6:12 a.m. Pewaukee — A 33-year-old Milwaukee man died Sunday during the swimming portion of a triathlon.
The victim was identified as Daniel J. Murry. West Allis firefighter Steve Peterson was in a kayak assisting lifeguards in the middle of the race Sunday at Pewaukee Lake when he saw Murry grabbing onto a lifeguard boat and then a flotation device. Then Peterson says Murry went under the water.
Peterson and others pulled Murry out, and lifeguards administered CPR, but the man couldn’t be saved.
Pewaukee police Lt. Mark Flessert said it was not known if Murry had a medical condition that contributed to the incident.
An autopy has been scheduled for later Monday morning.
Sad. I started in the final wave yesterday so I basically got to watch the entire swim unfold. I had never seen so many people clinging to kayaks, boats and buoys. And I thought the water was actually pretty calm.
That’s very sad but it sounds like he might not have been prepared for the swim. One report said he needed to rest at the first turn of the 1/4 mile swim. That’s less than 150 yards maybe?
A friend on another board who was a competitive swimmer back in the day did that as her first race yesterday. A comment from her:
Amazing thing though - why do people always think swimming is easy and then don’t train for it? They probably pulled at least 20 people out of the water - at least 3 unconscious. You can drown, people! With biking you can always go slow. With running you can always walk. You can’t do anything easier for swimmimg! You’re in the middle of a lake for God’s sake!
Swimming is one of the hardest sports to do well, and takes so much energy, you really need to know your strokes well. I’ve been swimming since birth and used to compete - and I even realized I didn’t work on that enough - it took a lot more out of me than I thought it would.
I think there was a lot of that mentality on display yesterday. It was a 1/4 mile swim yet there were clearly people unprepared for it. I do disagree with your friend on one point–you can get on your back and float/scull or do a dead man’s float if you need to rest while swimming. However, once panic sets in most people seem incapable of remembering this (or maybe they never learned in the first place).
BTW-I am not making any accusations about the man who died. I don’t know his background and I feel terrible for him and his family.
IF this type of thing continues to happen, maybe it will become necessary to have Qualifying rounds for Triathlons; in order to eliminate those individuals who aren’t currently ready to compete.
IF this type of thing continues to happen, maybe it will become necessary to have Qualifying rounds for Triathlons; in order to eliminate those individuals who aren’t currently ready to compete.
Maybe having some kind of minimal qualifying to get a USAT card is not such a bad idea. Add the cost to the license fee. At least some kind of swim instruction. For one day licenses, require a certificate, perhaps from a YMCA or Red Cross swim program. As for swim safety, you can always roll over and float on your back.
However maybe this poor guy had some other issues at work.
It is sad however you look at it. I feel for his family and friends.
I recall a thread about how everyone should have to pass an open water swimming test to race (like swim 200 meters and 10 minutes of treading water or something), not that that would ever happen. I train newbies every spring for a June sprint. I basically tell them that swimming in the pool/lap swim fitness means nothing if you can’t deal with the lake. Everyone is scared, so we get in the lake as soon as we can (58 degrees the last week of May) and stick very close to shore and get used to that. We have them sign waivers and the other coach is a lifeguard. Feeling OK treading water/dog paddling & rolling over on your back out in the middle of a lake is more important than being able to swim half a mile in a 25-yard pool.
I was in a triathlon yesterday in a pool. It started with a 400m swim. I was really surprised how many people really struggled with the swim. In the first lane there were several that walked the swim. Yes walked the swim. My wife noticed that they walked backwards and she asked me if that was more efficient. She knows I read a lot about triathlons. But I told her it is really not something I have seen discussed before. Or had to look into.
I think what happens there are people that enjoy cycling and running and decide they would like to do triathlons. But have no ability to swim. I had a friend who was a really, really good athlete but just could not swim at all. Apparently he had not grown up just going to the pool. I am not talking about competitive swimming. He just did not go to a pool and swim at all when he was young.
Now for whatever reason he just can’t pick it up. It is really hard to understand if you did grow up going to the pool during the summer.
He is very fit but he will swim 50m and be completely exhausted and have to hold on to the side for a while.
make it like cycling where you have to move up by category. do a certain number of pool races and prove you have some ability to swim, then open water sprint tris, then graduate to olympic distance, on to 70.3, and so on.
Feel bad about the guy who died. It sounds like he slipped off the lifeguard boat then drowned?
IF this type of thing continues to happen, maybe it will become necessary to have Qualifying rounds for Triathlons; in order to eliminate those individuals who aren’t currently ready to compete.
How do you do a qualifier for a sprint triathlon?
Accenture (when it was Mrs Ts) used to have a qualifier years ago. You had to have a lifeguard sign off that you could swim in open water. Or…show race results from a prior race. Must have been too much of a pain with the number of participants, so they dropped it.
Who is going to put those on? Where do they find the pools? What pool is going to open itself up to the potential liability? Can you show me any correlation between pool swiming and open water swimming?
I merely ask these questions to raise some of the issues involved. In many cases, newbies are fine in the pool, then, they freak out in open water.
Assume someone “passes” the pool swim, then drowns in the open water. How long do you think it will be before someone sues the pool for “falsely certifying” the person to swim in open water.
I don’t mean to sound elitest, and I think its GREAT that people want to participate in TRI, but obviously for the initiated it can be surprisingly dangerous.
ADD to that the danger these otherwise unqualified people getting on a bike and hitting the course, and you can see how they begin to pose a danger to those around them as well.
Instead, just have a Qualifier round (as suggested via USAT is a decent enough idea), and have people earn their rating. Its bad for ANY sport when people hurt themselves or others because they bit off more than they could chew.
And I am not speaking specifically about this particular instance, but when bodies begin to stack up over a year or two; its going to draw negative attention to our sport. We need to keep TRI in a positive light.
I don’t want to seem disrespectful to the individual … but talking about qualifiers for sprint triathlons seems rather absurd. Maybe we would have someone show that they could safely take a bath in a tub or something.
Just a question. I’m not trying to start an whole new discussion. I’m new to tri’s (2nd full year). I’m not trying to say we should be using fins, I’ve just always wondered how/why they are considered illegal?
Ok, on the bike, it seems all the aero bars, seat posts, ect and what is allowed. On the run, you can wear compression, specialized running shoes etc.
So why are fins not allowed?
Is it because they think it gives too much of an advantage? Is it for safety of all in the swim?
Ha! You thought your post was funny, but think about it.
What if races allowed people to use snorkels during the swim, but if they choose to, then they are not listed as official finishers? They would still be timed, but no AG recognition or awards. Oh and they get to start LAST when there are waves, so they can all snorkel together.
Wait that seems kinda funny too, but it might work…