Originally Posted by
Rowan
If you read read the article linked to in the first post, the opposite is true.
There have been various athletic people with high profiles who have died of heart attacks. Ed Burke is one of the better known cases. A small number of soccer players have collapsed on the field and died.
One of the reasons that has not been explored sufficiently in sports morbidity rates, in my opinion, is the influence of air travel and the resulting effect that deep vein thrombosis has on cardiac function in circumstances like this.
It was only after Machka developed a case of DVT after a long, uninterrupted flight from Canada to Australia, that we gained a better understanding of what can happen through the research she did, and what the blood specialist told us.
She was a fit, a long-distance cyclist, but it was discovered that she has a genetic predisposition for developing blood clots that then can break away, make their way to the lungs and heart and cause death if not caught in time.
Of course, there may well be other factors at play in the deaths being discussed. Unfortunately, while an autopsy reveals what actually was the cause of death in the triathlon case, we are unlikely to ever find out.
That is a very good point about DVT. I travelled from Taiwan-East Coast North America four times in one summer...on the 4th flight...developed DVT which broke off and formed an embolism in my right lung. I'm was 36, healthy and fit. Turns out my genes for "protein s" make me susceptible to clots.
However, in many cases, SIPEs are not related to blood clots. Instead, swimming deaths in triathlon seem to be related to water temperature, pressure from the suit, adrenalin in the body pre-race, and going out hard to clear the pack. Fitter athletes have a higher rate of death from SIPEs than less fit athletes.
There will always be risks. To manage the risks...get in the water before the swim if possible and put your wetsuit on last minute. Too much standing around fully zipped up in high ambient temps...then a plunge into cold water and a massive and sudden increase in physical exertion...that is not a good thing regardless if it ends up being the cause of SIPEs or not. Warming up in the water will help. Race directors should also let athletes start from the water so that the body can adjust more slowly to the temp difference. And I always try to keep my pace down for the first few hundred meters until I can feel my respiratory needs increasing and I know my body is clicking over into performance mode. Sometimes means I can stuck a little at the front edge of the pack...but hey...part of what I love about triathlon is the chaos of a group swim! If I go out hard...I'm such a porpoise in the water I won't get that experience!
