“It is with a heavy heart that we confirm the passing of an athlete who competed in last weekend’s IRONMAN 70.3 Swansea triathlon.
Approximately half-way into the swim portion of the race, swim safety personnel noticed and responded to an athlete in difficulty. The athlete received immediate medical care while being taken via boat to a designated extraction point on the harbour, where further treatment was administered. The athlete was then transported to the hospital where they continued to receive treatment, but sadly passed today.
Our deepest condolences are with the family and friends of the athlete. We will continue to offer them our support and keep them in our thoughts as they go through this challenging time. We are deeply grateful to the swim safety personnel and first responders who worked quickly to provide the athlete with medical assistance.”
It’s quite “ usual “ to have a panic attack at the start of a race ( I kind of had one last year in a swimming pool) with even very experienced open water swimmers acknowledging it happens.
Most of us developed ways to “ calm down” but every so often we get this result
Underlying medical condition is the go to answer but one of the guys who died at IM cork had done multiple Ironmans and endurance events.
I often wonder if we could do more ?
This is not a slight at IM, the officials or anyone else ?!
Past experience is no guarantee that something won’t happen. Can you do more?? Probably not.
My main issue is that many participants who may have a medical condition that MIGHT cause an issue in the swim do not alert the organisers to this so they can be issued with a different coloured swim cap and/or assigned a support canoe or SUP just in case.
Sure - but many do. An example that happened many years ago at a sprint tri with a mass start - all came out of the water bar one whose body was found on the lake bottom some time later. At the inquest, it turns out he was an epileptic who probably had a fit during the mass start and would have struggled to breath with his head in the water leading to drowning. He was effectively guilty of his own death by a) entering an event with a swim, and b) not letting the organisers know so they could manage him.
Nobody really knows why it happens
Racing with a medical condition is madness.
Even if you get paid for it.
There are several factors which make it less likely but you will know them already
The do more is education way way before race day not a race briefing
I’ve borrowed two bikes to people doing 70.3/ Ironmans in the last year or so.
They both had panic attacks in open water ( in practice ) swimming for the first time surrounded by pent up thousands is crazy.
Lots of work being done to understand it but no real answers
That was our club champs that day (I was still chair at the old club). Dreadful and preventable. Alan the OLT chair at the time, was distraut on phone to me
People die in their sleep every day. 6 motorcyclists per week die in the UK. What do you recommend to fix this?
Better to drop dead doing something you love than in a hospice, or choking on a burger. Being told I can’t run or swim or bike or snowboard etc. for health reasons is a fate worse than death - I would just keep taking my chances.
Yeah I think it’s important not to mesh a whole host of different things together.
Some things can be prevented or have risks reduced, others can’t.
Some things are really the responsibility of the athlete, others are things out of their control.
Some things just happen.
I’ve no doubt some of the people who suddenly freak out at the start of the swim have never had an anxiety or panic attack in their lives, can’t recognise it coming on, and so do not know how to deal with it.
Given all the permutations and potential things can lead to these sorts of tragedies, I’m not sure this is a problem that can really be “solved”.
