Of Tragic & Totally Avoidable Deaths In Sport

[TheFourMarys]

How the flying fuck does something like this happen?

http://deadspin.com/5671652/us-swim-team-member-dies-during-open+water-event

How the hell is a supposedly professional sporting event allowed to take place in such conditions?

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/news/story?id=5718372

[ursus arctos]

Of Tragic & Totally Avoidable Deaths In Sport

Tragedy is a grievously overused word in sport, but this is a genuine one.

The utter disregard for the well being of competitors shown by the "blazers" who run such things is breathtaking. At a minimum, they were grossly negligent, but a fat judgement isn't going to get the family their son and brother back.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Of Tragic & Totally Avoidable Deaths In Sport

I'm intrigued by the bit that says "after eight kilometres, Crippen told his coach he was feeling unwell".

Why the hell didn't his coach tell him to get into the boat then?

[Reed John]

Of Tragic & Totally Avoidable Deaths In Sport

It makes me wonder if this entire sport or open water swimming has been adequately thought-out. In similar endurance events on land - cycling or running - the worst thing that will happen if somebody bonks is that they'll fall over in the ditch, but surely somebody will see them and get help. This, on the other hand, is the fucking ocean. Unless there are spotters every 40 yards or so, it seems inevitable that this would happen sooner or later, especially if they're swimming in bath water.

[ChrisJ]

Of Tragic & Totally Avoidable Deaths In Sport

It's not so much the whole sport that's not been thought out, but this event (or maybe series) that has been so poorly managed.

I read a report on a swimming newsgroup that Crippen had possibly suffered a heart attack.The water temperature was extraordinarily high. You get cold more quickly in cold water than cold air. Presumably you can't cool as efficiently in very warm water. Swimming hard in warm water is (in my experience, which is limited as my longer swims have been mostly in the UK) much more exhausting than running on a warm day. Having no upper limit on water temperature is ludicrous. I didn't know that before. FINA is being rightly slammed.

I'm surprised that in an event such as this, there wasn't individual cover. It seems odd that a swimmer in a fairly small field can collapse without being spotted. You don't get as many competitors in a 10k race as you would in its nearest land equivalent, a marathon, and this was an elite event - probably only 30-odd starters in the men's, fewer in the women's. Most of the swimmers are pretty close to each other so a dozen spotters would have done the trick.

Open water swimming is indeed theoretically more risky than running, cycling or, indeed, pool swimming, though the number of deaths every year in, say, the Great North Run (a Half-Marathon for non UK-ers) usually goes generally unreported.

Why his coach didn't tell him to get out, I don't know. Usually the athlete will take the decision to abort.

[Janik]

Of Tragic & Totally Avoidable Deaths In Sport

ChrisJ wrote:

Why his coach didn't tell him to get out, I don't know. Usually the athlete will take the decision to abort.

Yeah, but most top level athletes are monomaniacs to some degree. Add in phyiscal exhaustion leading to a confused state of mind, and that monomania might dominate. That is why it's a boxers corner that throws in the towel, and Tom Simpson's last words were "put me back on my bike" (n.b. that is the only similarity I'm drawing between the deaths of Simpson and Crippen). It can't be a desicion left to the athlete alone.

[ChrisJ]

Of Tragic & Totally Avoidable Deaths In Sport

Janik wrote:

ChrisJ wrote:

Why his coach didn't tell him to get out, I don't know. Usually the athlete will take the decision to abort.

Yeah, but most top level athletes are monomaniacs to some degree. Add in phyiscal exhaustion leading to a confused state of mind, and that monomania might dominate. That is why it's a boxers corner that throws in the towel, and Tom Simpson's last words were "put me back on my bike" (n.b. that is the only similarity I'm drawing between the deaths of Simpson and Crippen). It can't be a desicion left to the athlete alone.

I agree, Crippen wouldn't have been able to make the decision himself, but in boxing, to take your example, it's a well-established way to end a fight. In race swimming no-one, to the best of my knowledge, has died before, or suffered the kind of serious harm that would come in a boxing ring.

The coach ought to have pulled him, but he would probably have no experience of picking the danger signs, even if they were fully apparent when they spoke. Having said that he's probably never going to forget that decision to let him swim on.

I only hope that FINA take a lesson from it, though their public wriggling and blame deflection is fairly nauseating and lacking in class.