I understand an athlete at Boulder had a cardiac episode at the end of the swim. Does anyone have an update on his/her condition? My wife and kids saw it happening and were obviously concerned.
I saw on facebook that the person was revived enroute to the hospital, but died there.
This is the first I heard of this…horrible! My condolences to the athlete and family.
Additionally, there was an accident involving a triathlete on Jay & 47th intersection. There were 3 bikes (tri bikes) on the back of one vehicle & ambulances were on scene, as was a fire truck and several Boulder County Sheriff & State Police cars. I hope the athletes were okay in the end.
My wife was in the race. At the finish, she saw EMS personnel doing CPR. She said they were was no doubt that this was going on: the tech was on the stretcher, on his knees, really pressing hard. I didn’t see that, but I did see the ambulance drive away, and a very visibly shaken race volunteer tapping the back of the rig and making the sign of the cross as it drove off.
We looked for information, but this is the first we’ve seen of it in local and online reporting.
That is what I was afraid the result was. I feel terrible for the family.
Competitor Dies in Swim Leg of Boulder Ironman Triathlon
Boulder, Colo. (AP) – An athlete died a day after being pulled from the water during the Boulder Ironman 70.3 triathlon in Colorado. It was the third death in four years of Ironman competitions in Boulder.
A witness, physician Donald Cain from Wisconsin, told the Daily Camera in Boulder that a man was pulled from the water on Saturday.
Ironman officials said the athlete died Sunday evening. The athlete was not identified.
A 70.3 triathlon, or half Ironman, involves swimming 1.2 miles (1.9 kilometers), biking 56 miles (90 kilometers) and running 13.1 miles (21 kilometers).
Michelle Walters, 34, of McCook, Nebraska, died after being struck by a vehicle during Boulder’s 2016 Ironman race while 40 -year-old Brian Godlove of Fairfax, Virginia, died three days after a 2015 race from dehydration and muscle tissue breakdown.
Information from: Daily Camera, http://www.dailycamera.com/
I understand an athlete at Boulder had a cardiac episode at the end of the swim. Does anyone have an update on his/her condition? My wife and kids saw it happening and were obviously concerned.
This is terrible news and it is unfortunately becoming more and more common ts seems over the past few years.
I do not mean to derail this thread, but is the sport of triathlon becoming on of the more dangerous sports in terms of fatalities in the US? Injuries aside it seems that I hear more about deaths in these events than in other sports and I have a fairly firm grasp in other sports as I work with a wide range of athletes.
How many years has USAT had a death at a sanction event? I cannot find any for USAW (Weightlifting) and a google search corrected me to USAT.
Could this death and others be due to altitude?
I don’t know if altitude was a factor in this one. In 2016 I think it was clearly not, unless it somehow had impaired balance or decision making at the time of the crash, which I guess we will never know, but it seems that it was initiating a pass that was the cause. In 2015 it was due to not ingesting electrolytes at all during the event, just plain water. It does not seem to me that altitude is the common cause for the Boulder deaths.
I do not mean to derail this thread, but is the sport of triathlon becoming on of the more dangerous sports in terms of fatalities in the US?//
Well to be fair to triathlon, it is the swim portion that most people are dying in, and it is from heart attacks(or related heart failures).
Does anyone know if there are similar rates in open water swim races?
Does anyone know if there are similar rates in open water swim races? //
Probably not a fair comparison, as most people that race OW are generally of a different proficiency than triathletes. And I’m guessing here that there are way more swims in triathlons that stand alone OW swim races. But I know of several deaths in just OW swim races, all proficient swimmers too. I just seem to hear more about triathlon swimming deaths, but that could just because there are more opportunities for such things to happen.
I do not mean to derail this thread, but is the sport of triathlon becoming on of the more dangerous sports in terms of fatalities in the US?//
Well to be fair to triathlon, it is the swim portion that most people are dying in, and it is from heart attacks(or related heart failures).
Agreed, but people are also being struck on course by motorists, only stating the facts here.
So why are people having heart attacks in swims more than runs? Why are people having heart attacks in triathlons and not other sports?
As much crap as CrossFit gets from the public (deservedly so at times) what is the death rate at events or even in gyms? From my outside view the biggest danger is rhabdo (yes it can lead to kidney failure and death) but even that does not seem to lead to as many deaths/populaiton as triathlon does.
I can’t find much in weightlifting, rugby, etc. The closest I can see is mountain climbing with falls, being trapped, etc along with motor sports and skydiving. All where I see the risks that much larger.
Or is swimming in a triathlon really booming that dangerous? While the deaths are “very low” they are still happening every single year. I am starting to think this is more dangerous than most maybe realize?
So why are people having heart attacks in swims more than runs? Why are people having heart attacks in triathlons and not other sports? //
They are dying in the other sports(running and cycling), what makes you think they are not?? All the individual sports of triathlon have a pretty good death rate, and the probable reason more people dont die in the bike and run(medical related) in triathlon is because they already died in the swim. Cant die twice, and if the most stressful spot in a race is in the water, just makes sense that is where anyone on edge is going to die…
So why are people having heart attacks in swims more than runs? Why are people having heart attacks in triathlons and not other sports? //
They are dying in the other sports(running and cycling), what makes you think they are not?? All the individual sports of triathlon have a pretty good death rate, and the probable reason more people dont die in the bike and run(medical related) in triathlon is because they already died in the swim. Cant die twice, and if the most stressful spot in a race is in the water, just makes sense that is where anyone on edge is going to die…
I should clarify…
Why are people having heart attacks and why is the death rate so high in swim, bike, and run versus other non swim, bike, and run sports?
What other sport is as diverse as triathlon is and the 1 sport least proficient- swimming. Triathlon by its nature is always going to be a “dangerous†sport vs a land based single focused sport. Think about the kinda absurdity of it actually. 3 different sport specifics, that’s by its nature a much more “oh shit†moments than baseball or rugby or basketball.
Triathlon by its very nature is a much more high level skill sport than other single sports. Anyone can play basketball because they can run up and down the court. What is it Red Cross says 50% people can’t even swim. So there you go, your doing a much higher specific sport and oh yeah your going to get to spend roughly 1/3rd of the time working on said sport.
Imagine you telling the basketball coach “sorry coach I can’t play today I need to work on something else that’s what triathlon is with s-b-r.
Additionally, there was an accident involving a triathlete on Jay & 47th intersection.
That bike accident must have been a non-racer, the course has changed and no longer goes on Jay.
I don’t know why, or if it is even true. Where are you getting your stats from? I hear of kids and adults dying in football and basketball pretty often, not so much baseball…What numbers are you comparing??
So why are people having heart attacks in swims more than runs? Why are people having heart attacks in triathlons and not other sports? //
They are dying in the other sports(running and cycling), what makes you think they are not?? All the individual sports of triathlon have a pretty good death rate, and the probable reason more people dont die in the bike and run(medical related) in triathlon is because they already died in the swim. Cant die twice, and if the most stressful spot in a race is in the water, just makes sense that is where anyone on edge is going to die…
I should clarify…
Why are people having heart attacks and why is the death rate so high in swim, bike, and run versus other non swim, bike, and run sports?
Do you have any numbers or are your pulling the “death rate so high†out of your butt? Because the death rate isn’t that high. How many triathlons have you done where there was a death, versus how many there haven’t been. There isn’t a high death rate, there is just a high rate of publicizing the deaths when they happen, because they are pretty rare.
Competitor Dies in Swim Leg of Boulder Ironman Triathlon
Boulder, Colo. (AP) – An athlete died a day after being pulled from the water during the Boulder Ironman 70.3 triathlon in Colorado. It was the third death in four years of Ironman competitions in Boulder.
A witness, physician Donald Cain from Wisconsin, told the Daily Camera in Boulder that a man was pulled from the water on Saturday.
Ironman officials said the athlete died Sunday evening. The athlete was not identified.
A 70.3 triathlon, or half Ironman, involves swimming 1.2 miles (1.9 kilometers), biking 56 miles (90 kilometers) and running 13.1 miles (21 kilometers).
Michelle Walters, 34, of McCook, Nebraska, died after being struck by a vehicle during Boulder’s 2016 Ironman race while 40 -year-old Brian Godlove of Fairfax, Virginia, died three days after a 2015 race from dehydration and muscle tissue breakdown.
Information from: Daily Camera, http://www.dailycamera.com/
The Brian godlove guy story got me curious… I looked up a pic if him and doesn’t seem to be a person of that size to pass from rhabdomyolysis. Maybe more from electrolyte issue.