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....
Someone, can't remember who, managed to get GPS tracks of his open water swim, only by placing his GPS watch under his cap. At times when he was underwater or behind a sea wall, the signal was lost. I think it would be difficult to have such a device on every OW swimmer.
SwimStud's spotter idea is probably the best answer. Anything else would just raise the price of the race.
And I don't think it was his suit. I read the latest from FINA, and still for men, as I understand it, only below the navel and above the knees is legal. And even the full suits for women must be of natural materials. This issue just was raised in Cyprus with a Ukrainian swimmer. The organizers didn't want to let her race because, in their words, her suit was below her knees. Her coach managed to point out to the organizers that her particular suit (Diana something) was of natural materials AND was on FINA's approved list.
If you look at the FINA approved list there are some full body suits on the list (allowed for OW only) including the TYR Tracer Light OW. My guess is that's what Crippen was wearing.
www.fina.org/.../index.php
Could protein packs be stuffed into short suits?
Even in a man's brief or a woman's tank suit, you can fit in a few packets of GU or PowerGel or whatever gel snack you prefer. The packets are not very big, after all. (And they aren't "protein" gels. You would think a sports reporter would know what people eat in races.)
But he probably wasn't wearing a little suit. He was a sponsored athlete racing for money, so he was wearing his sponsor's fastest suit. The stories also suggest that the race organizers may have misinformed the athletes about the water temperature.
May be they should have qualifiying races and only allow a few swimmers from each country. Ah but that would limit entry fees.
Of course, entry fees are not the financial incentive. They do have qualifying races for the FINA World Cup. Then if you qualify for the circuit, you can receive prize money, but only if you complete at least six of the eight races including the last one (this UAE race was the mandatory last race). As in any professional sport, advertising is the financial incentive for people to organize competitions, and prize money and appearance fees are the incentives for people to compete in them.
What these professional athletes need, apparently, is a union.
Can this tell something about his suit?
"In the air-conditioned tent near the start, Crippen swigged Gatorade and stuffed his suit with packets of protein gel."
(link)
Could protein packs be stuffed into short suits?
I was just looking on the TRY website and they have a new series of
swimsuit for the Tri Athlete which would include OW I would guess.
TYR to Debut Torque Swimskin Series. It is black, which is great in sun,
and is from the neck to knee. It might be what Fran was wearing. Strange
no one can tell what he was wearing. No pictures of the race participants or race? In my opinion, the race was improperly run with no thought of safety for any of the swimmers. It's a miracle more did not drown in those
aweful conditions: ie heat, water temp, no safety boats ect. RIP :2cents:
To my knowledge, nobody has mentioned that 'tech suits', those marvelous wonders with which we all had those love-hate relationships, are still legal in FINA open water events. I don't know this for a fact, but I'll wager that Fran was wearing one in order to be competitive at this world event. Imagine swimming in toasty water in a Blue 70 or some such suit, virtually a wetsuit in terms of blocking thermal loss. Talk about the potential of accelerating hyperthermia! Yikes!
What suit was Fran wearing?
When we crossed Lake Ontario every swimmer had to wear a flouresent fabric waterpolo cap with a light on it. In case we were lost in the night.
A device could be attached to this kind of cap. We were each supplied by a small motor boat with an official, and a coach or assistant. Each swimmer had a launch to accompany them also.
FINA knows nothing about safety. May be they should have qualifiying races and only allow a few swimmers from each country. Ah but that would limit entry fees.
Some race photos posted by a Fujairiah resident are available here:
www.facebook.com/album.php
It's a little hard to tell, but it looks like most of the men had bare torsos. There also was at least one race official (with a radio) on a jet ski in close proximity to the lead pack.
Someone, can't remember who, managed to get GPS tracks of his open water swim, only by placing his GPS watch under his cap. At times when he was underwater or behind a sea wall, the signal was lost. I think it would be difficult to have such a device on every OW swimmer.
My guess is that something that was small enough to put under a swim cap was capturing log data only, and was not transmitting it anywhere. I.e., after the swim, he could connect the GPS watch to the computer, and download the track. But I'm not aware of any device that is that small, and waterproof, that is capable of continuously transmitting a GPS signal to a receiver that is a mile away.
-Rick
