Sad news: Fran Crippen, 26, passes away

There is a big difference between spotting a struggling swimmer in the water and spotting someone suffering from heat exhaustion. Hyperthermia causes the brain to be starved of oxygen. You cannot rescue someone in that situation by spotting them with binoculars because one moment you are swimming and the next moment you are face down in the water unconscience. And considering the state of the brain, I HIGHLY doubt that you have 30 seconds to rescue (that is an opinion of course). That isn't what happened to Christine Jennings. She says she got dizzy, vomited, veered off course, and thought she might black out. So she rolled onto her back, to be face-up in case she passed out, and waved her arms for a rescue. Nobody came. Eventually she decided the only way out was to swim to the finish. She staggered out of the water and directly into an ambulance, which took her to a hospital to be treated for hyperthermia. Who knows what Fran Crippen did after he swam away from the person who probably should have pulled him but didn't? Nobody, which is inexcusable. Even if he had died as fast as you suggest, if he had stopped face down anywhere near a paddler, someone could have helped him. But they didn't have any paddlers. And I agree that all forms of safety should be used, even binoculars (SHARK!), but that seems prefunctory. I mean, who suggested otherwise? You did, by ridiculing the idea that safety personnel (not just "binoculars") could have made a difference. Glad you didn't mean it. A lot of races are going to occur between now and the time FINA gets around to adopting and implementing a maximum temperature rule, if it ever does, and the importance of safety personnel on the course is an issue that every race director and participant can focus on now.

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. Fair enough... I forget that a lot of the swims I do are not FINA-approved, as that is not something that is particularly important to me. So then, my revised worry would be that other open-swims would follow suit. Literally thousands of swims are done from Alcatraz each year (I did one myself this year) without incident -- but again, they are all well-monitored with kayaks, etc. (Semi-relatedly -- the temperature of water did vary dramatically across the swim. They told us that it was 60 degrees, but I'm willing to bet that parts were colder than that (and parts warmer, too). So, it can become hard to judge what "the" water temperature is).

There is a big difference between spotting a struggling swimmer in the water and spotting someone suffering from heat exhaustion. Hyperthermia causes the brain to be starved of oxygen. You cannot rescue someone in that situation by spotting them with binoculars because one moment you are swimming and the next moment you are face down in the water unconscience. And considering the state of the brain, I HIGHLY doubt that you have 30 Again, you don't know what you are talking about. Heat exhaustion doesn't happen suddenly. Spotting a weak swimmer is exactly what binoculars are for. Also, you most certainly have more than 30 seconds to revive an unconscious swimmer, and the distance one can travel in 30 seconds on a paddleboard is huge. If there is a sudden illness (heart attack) it is a bit more tricky, however people usually don't sink to deep right away. With a jet ski or paddleboard you can find them pretty quick, but you need to have a general idea as to where they are, hence the binoculars. I apologize if you took my "genius" comment personally, but I am completely dumbfounded by that attitude. I am not offended by your lack of knowledge.

Just a note on the suits. This summer I experimented a bit and wore my B70 Nero Comp at the GA State Games 5K OW. Temps were in the upper 80's (cool for ATL in July) due to clouds and water warm at about 85. I was miserable. Not much else to say. Oh, I also forgot Body glide on one spot on my chest and got a nice friction burn (which later scabbed).

30 seconds may be too long a wait for some crisis when they happen. I thought I was nasty but the odd poster here is really nasty.

I understand that people can have strongly voiced differences of opinion, but this thread doesn't really seem the proper place. Agreed?

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.

Fran stopped and complained during the race. This didn't happen because people were unaware that he was in trouble. It happened because the danger of heat exhaustion wasn't taken seriously. I find your attitude frightening. Yeah, you can die in about 30 seconds if you have a heat stoke in the water, but we'll make sure that we get you in time. 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. I'm sorry -- in what part of my post did I say that people should have ignored Fran when he complained? My whole point was that better attention to the swimmers is needed, which yes, includes taking the risks seriously. All I am saying is that I would hate to see the conclusion be, "and so we can't run races when the temp is above X or below Y."

You did, by ridiculing the idea that safety personnel (not just "binoculars") could have made a difference. Glad you didn't mean it. A lot of races are going to occur between now and the time FINA gets around to adopting and implementing a maximum temperature rule, if it ever does, and the importance of safety personnel on the course is an issue that every race director and participant can focus on now. I did not ridicule the idea that safety personnel could have made a difference. I specifically ridiculed you for writing, " forget technology, all you need is a clip board, jet skis.... Etc... " No where in your "all you need," did you mention implementing controls on temperature. I found your post careless and overstated. Anyone who suggests that swimming in warm water is safe is wrong. The debate ends there. Unless you have the swimmers specifc permision to use her name, and unless you specifically know that this swimmers opinion on this issue you ought not use her real name. Maybe you didn't. Oh well, your call...

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. Hey Alfred Einstein, Lifeguards make rescues every day from spotting people with binoculars. You don't know what you are talking about.