Full story:
www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/.../25369.asp
Excerpt:
Passages: Fran Crippen, 26 - FINA, USA Swimming Release Statements -- October 23, 2010
FUJAIRAH, United Arab Emirates, October 23. SHORTLY after the FINA Open Water 10K World Cup swim today in the UAE, United States swimmer Fran Crippen, 26, passed away after falling unconscious during the race.
With the water in the mid-to-high 80s, the competitors all finished and noticed that Crippen had not crossed the finish line. Meet management brought in deep sea divers, who found Crippen unconscious just before the final buoy nearly two hours later. He was transported to the Fujairah Hospital and later died according to information provided to Swimming World. Conflicting reports state that he was found dead on the course.
Crippen had shown signs of slowing down during the third lap of the five-lap race. When Crippen did not immediately finish, a fact noticed by teammate Alex Meyer who screamed for help, the competing swimmers rushed back into the water to help with the search.
Information provided to Swimming World demonstrates that the water was likely too hot for the event as several swimmers were treated for heat exhaustion after the race....
The technology *does* exist. I've been in OW races where they strap a chip to your ankle, and if you like, you can have it periodically send your location to Facebook or whatever. If that can be done, they should have been able to see that one of the chips was no longer moving.
The most common "tracking devices" do not continuously broadcast position. They are passive chips that register when they pass a sensor, such as a powered mat. That system is the only one I have ever encountered at a USMS-sanctioned OW event, and lots of events don't bother with chip timing (presumably because they don't want to pay for the vendor).
In FINA World Cup OW races they determine the order of finish with a touch pad that the swimmers have to slap as they pass under it. In our local races, the ones that use chip timing determine the finish order as swimmers pass over an on-shore mat. A nice side benefit of chip timing is indeed that you can make sure that every chip that went in comes out.
Continuously broadcasting devices exist, but could you use them in an OW race? They require power (like your cell phone, say); are they waterproof? Are they small enough that the athletes could and would wear them? Is the price of the system low enough to make sense to use it given the economics of the FINA World Cup?
From what I know about how they conduct the World Cup OW races, I assume that chip timing was in use at this event. I think they just didn't have anyone paying attention to the swimmer inventory, aside from the swimmers themselves. I don't think this problem is one that has a technological solution. It's just appalling, outrageous, inexcusable human failure, and no technology or rule can prevent that.
The technology *does* exist. I've been in OW races where they strap a chip to your ankle, and if you like, you can have it periodically send your location to Facebook or whatever. If that can be done, they should have been able to see that one of the chips was no longer moving.
The most common "tracking devices" do not continuously broadcast position. They are passive chips that register when they pass a sensor, such as a powered mat. That system is the only one I have ever encountered at a USMS-sanctioned OW event, and lots of events don't bother with chip timing (presumably because they don't want to pay for the vendor).
In FINA World Cup OW races they determine the order of finish with a touch pad that the swimmers have to slap as they pass under it. In our local races, the ones that use chip timing determine the finish order as swimmers pass over an on-shore mat. A nice side benefit of chip timing is indeed that you can make sure that every chip that went in comes out.
Continuously broadcasting devices exist, but could you use them in an OW race? They require power (like your cell phone, say); are they waterproof? Are they small enough that the athletes could and would wear them? Is the price of the system low enough to make sense to use it given the economics of the FINA World Cup?
From what I know about how they conduct the World Cup OW races, I assume that chip timing was in use at this event. I think they just didn't have anyone paying attention to the swimmer inventory, aside from the swimmers themselves. I don't think this problem is one that has a technological solution. It's just appalling, outrageous, inexcusable human failure, and no technology or rule can prevent that.
