Looking for cardiac athletes. I belong to a couple online groups of athletes who all have had some sort of heart surgery. Bypass, stent, pacemaker, valve replacement, or aneurysm. They are mostly runners, but many cycle, ski, climb mountains, play team sports, etc. We wrote a book about our experiences. I'm wondering if anyone knows of any swimmers who have come back to competition after heart surgery.
www.amazon.com/.../1500159638
I had a mechanical aortic valve replacement 25 years ago and continued to do road and track races and shot put. I only recently got more serious about swimming and wonder whether there are any others.
Someone recently posted on Facebook an event announcement of "The World Heart Games" by the American College of Sports Medicine in Charlotte NC. Some Cardiac Athletes started to get excited until we looked at their brochure. The events include things like golf putt, softball throw, soccer shoot, frisbee, and get ready for this, bean bag toss! There was one swim thing included, but not a race by any means.
Now here's the kicker, the games are sponsored by Coca Cola whose products are probably more responsible for coronary heart disease than anything else and their purpose in backing it is to counter the negative publicity that sugar loading has been getting in recent years.
For the most part, the people online were insulted by the lack of any true challenge in the event schedule, and upset that the ACSM would allow the backing of Coke of all companies. Although, most do understand the audience they are aiming this at, calling it world games was a big stretch. So a number of the more competitive souls among us posted their true feelings on the WHG web site, but they were promptly deleted.
Someone recently posted on Facebook an event announcement of "The World Heart Games" by the American College of Sports Medicine in Charlotte NC. Some Cardiac Athletes started to get excited until we looked at their brochure. The events include things like golf putt, softball throw, soccer shoot, frisbee, and get ready for this, bean bag toss! There was one swim thing included, but not a race by any means.
Now here's the kicker, the games are sponsored by Coca Cola whose products are probably more responsible for coronary heart disease than anything else and their purpose in backing it is to counter the negative publicity that sugar loading has been getting in recent years.
For the most part, the people online were insulted by the lack of any true challenge in the event schedule, and upset that the ACSM would allow the backing of Coke of all companies. Although, most do understand the audience they are aiming this at, calling it world games was a big stretch. So a number of the more competitive souls among us posted their true feelings on the WHG web site, but they were promptly deleted.
