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....
To the genius who suggested that binoculars would have fixed the problem, if you need binoculars to see someone they are too far away to be rescued.
Perhaps it takes true genius to understand why having someone's signature on a temperature certification form would be superior as a last line of defense to having some people actually watch the swimmers on the course. Anyway, a maximum temperature rule and race monitors are not mutually exclusive. To me, the former is a good idea and the latter is an absolute requirement.
Now someone is going to be telling me I can't do 60 degree or lower OW swims because of the risk.
In fact, FINA's minimum temperature rule is 16C, or 60.8F. They are not telling you that you can't swim in colder water, but they are telling you they won't sanction the event, and the rule probably does reflect some risk analysis. When they had Worlds at Stanford in 2006, my understanding is that the reason they had the OW race at Crown Beach instead of making it an iconic Alcatraz swim was that the water temperature between Alcatraz and Aquatic Park is not reliably over 16C.
To the genius who suggested that binoculars would have fixed the problem, if you need binoculars to see someone they are too far away to be rescued.
Perhaps it takes true genius to understand why having someone's signature on a temperature certification form would be superior as a last line of defense to having some people actually watch the swimmers on the course. Anyway, a maximum temperature rule and race monitors are not mutually exclusive. To me, the former is a good idea and the latter is an absolute requirement.
Now someone is going to be telling me I can't do 60 degree or lower OW swims because of the risk.
In fact, FINA's minimum temperature rule is 16C, or 60.8F. They are not telling you that you can't swim in colder water, but they are telling you they won't sanction the event, and the rule probably does reflect some risk analysis. When they had Worlds at Stanford in 2006, my understanding is that the reason they had the OW race at Crown Beach instead of making it an iconic Alcatraz swim was that the water temperature between Alcatraz and Aquatic Park is not reliably over 16C.
