{"id":193,"date":"2008-10-02T04:35:38","date_gmt":"2008-10-02T12:35:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theathleteslawyer.com\/cases\/swimming-deaths-in-triathlon\/"},"modified":"2008-10-02T04:35:38","modified_gmt":"2008-10-02T12:35:38","slug":"swimming-deaths-in-triathlon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/landauinjurylaw.com\/theathleteslawyer\/2008\/10\/02\/swimming-deaths-in-triathlon\/","title":{"rendered":"Swimming Deaths in Triathlon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since 2004, the USAT has recorded 26 triathlon fatalities; 21 of these died during the swim.<\/p>\n

But what makes the triathlon deaths more mysterious is that they all occurred during the first part of the race. Deaths during marathons tend to be more evenly distributed over the course of the 26.2 miles, with the largest grouping in the last mile, said Dr. William Roberts, a professor of family medicine at the University of Minnesota Medical School and the medical director of the Twin Cities Marathon, who has studied marathon deaths in the United States.<\/p>\n

According to the July 31st, 2008 New York Times article<\/a>, “Despite these similarities, a precise cause of death remains elusive in many cases. News reports suggest that at least three of this year’s deaths were linked to heart problems, but it is unclear whether those problems were primed to happen imminently or may not have happened until later without the race as a trigger.<\/p>\n

No one knows why deaths are more common during the swim portion of triathlons, but researchers have some intriguing theories. Public accounts of this year’s fatalities indicate that the athletes seemed outwardly healthy, and in some cases autopsies turned up no obvious cause of death, such as blocked arteries.<\/p>\n

The combination of apparent good health and a negative autopsy suggests a death caused by abnormal heart rhythms, said Dr. Pamela Douglas, a Duke University cardiologist who has studied triathletes.<\/p>\n

Evidence suggests that swimming may trigger a certain type of cardiac arrhythmia caused by a genetic condition called long QT syndrome, said Dr. Michael Ackerman, a cardiologist and the director of the Windland Smith Rice Sudden Death Genomics Laboratory at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. About 1 in 2,000 people are born with a heart condition that causes a glitch in the heart’s electrical system, and the most common of these is called long QT syndrome, after the tell-tale interval on an electrocardiogram.<\/p>\n

The long QT heart recharges sluggishly between beats, setting up the potential for a skipped beat, Dr. Ackerman said. When the problem strikes, a heart’s electrical system can go haywire, degenerating into a possibly fatal arrhythmia.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since 2004, the USAT has recorded 26 triathlon fatalities; 21 of these died during the swim. But what makes the triathlon deaths more mysterious is that they all occurred during the first part of the race. Deaths during marathons tend to be more evenly distributed over the course of the 26.2 miles, with the largest…<\/p>\n

Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[101,1840,2238,2631,4792,4802,4813,5000,5228,5798],"class_list":["post-193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cases","tag-abrams-landau","tag-doug-landau","tag-football-death","tag-herndon-reston-area-law-firm","tag-sports-death","tag-sports-fatal-accident","tag-sports-injury","tag-swimming-fatality","tag-triathlon-fatality","tag-wrongful-death"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSwimming Deaths in Triathlon - Sports Injury Law<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/landauinjurylaw.com\/theathleteslawyer\/2008\/10\/02\/swimming-deaths-in-triathlon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Swimming Deaths in Triathlon - Sports Injury Law\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Since 2004, the USAT has recorded 26 triathlon fatalities; 21 of these died during the swim. 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