Triathalon swim deaths 2008 rising. What is going on?

Re: Cardiology. I am reading that more and more high schools and colleges are requiring their athletes to go through a 12 point cardiac health screening process, in order to prevent fatalities within their sport programs. The exam includes tasks such as listening for heart murmurs and checking the femoral pulse to exclude narrowing of the aorta. Even amongst these young athletes, these precautions are being introduced because though the death rate is "relatively low, it is more common than previously thought and does represent a substantive public health concern." Also note that the majority of the reported deaths that are occurring in sports are in basketball and football. The reason is they are "HIGH INTENSITY sports with HIGH LEVELS OF PARTICIPATION." It is therefore logical that triathletes in their 30s, 40s, 50s... who most likely are not having a 12 point cardiac health exam plus a recommended ECG, who are participating in a "high intensity sport" would be at an even greater risk than the aforementioned athletes. Now, amongst the school-age athletes, the annual risk is around 1:200,000 (according to a 12yr study of 1.4 million student athletes from 27 sports.) Amongst our country's triathlon participants, I would assume the risk might be a bit higher than our younger athletes- say 4 times greater. At that rate, we could expect cardiac related complications in our triathlons to be around 1 in 50,000. Let's say that our risk is 8 times greater. We would then have a risk factor of 1 in 25,000. The 2007 USAT membership was 100,674, up from 84,787 in 2006. With a hypothetic risk factor of 1 in 25,000 and participation numbers exceeding 100,000 participants, we can expect at least 4 cardiac related deaths each year within USAT sanctioned events alone. Let's face it, when training, many of us have our comfort heart rate zone, our intense training heart rate zone, and that zone we stay out of in training most of the time to prevent injuries, excess lactic acid build up, cramping and over-training but will venture into when getting near the finish line of an actual competition. I wouldn't recommend busting off the starting line at that level of intensity (unless you know what you are doing, e.g. getting heart rate quickly up to optimal rate,) but a new competitor's desire to get out in front due to adrenaline, the possible desire to be the alpha, or the fear of being smashed in the middle of the pack or left in the rear may be just the motivation a new triathlete needs to push it too fast too hard in the beginning. Due to the lack of an annual or semi annual visit with a cardiologist (not a family doctor) for exercise stress test and other evals, one could discover en route that during this level of intensity they have a problem. As has been mentioned, in deep water and in conditions where it is difficult for rescuers to quickly spot you and get to you, this is not a good place for such a discovery. It looks like the New York Times is thinking along the same lines at www.nytimes.com/.../28fitness.html www.getactivetampa.com/Swimming-triathlon ocean swim.jpg

Re: Cardiology. I am reading that more and more high schools and colleges are requiring their athletes to go through a 12 point cardiac health screening process, in order to prevent fatalities within their sport programs. The exam includes tasks such as listening for heart murmurs and checking the femoral pulse to exclude narrowing of the aorta. Even amongst these young athletes, these precautions are being introduced because though the death rate is "relatively low, it is more common than previously thought and does represent a substantive public health concern." Also note that the majority of the reported deaths that are occurring in sports are in basketball and football. The reason is they are "HIGH INTENSITY sports with HIGH LEVELS OF PARTICIPATION." It is therefore logical that triathletes in their 30s, 40s, 50s... who most likely are not having a 12 point cardiac health exam plus a recommended ECG, who are participating in a "high intensity sport" would be at an even greater risk than the aforementioned athletes. Now, amongst the school-age athletes, the annual risk is around 1:200,000 (according to a 12yr study of 1.4 million student athletes from 27 sports.) Amongst our country's triathlon participants, I would assume the risk might be a bit higher than our younger athletes- say 4 times greater. At that rate, we could expect cardiac related complications in our triathlons to be around 1 in 50,000. Let's say that our risk is 8 times greater. We would then have a risk factor of 1 in 25,000. The 2007 USAT membership was 100,674, up from 84,787 in 2006. With a hypothetic risk factor of 1 in 25,000 and participation numbers exceeding 100,000 participants, we can expect at least 4 cardiac related deaths each year within USAT sanctioned events alone. Let's face it, when training, many of us have our comfort heart rate zone, our intense training heart rate zone, and that zone we stay out of in training most of the time to prevent injuries, excess lactic acid build up, cramping and over-training but will venture into when getting near the finish line of an actual competition. I wouldn't recommend busting off the starting line at that level of intensity (unless you know what you are doing, e.g. getting heart rate quickly up to optimal rate,) but a new competitor's desire to get out in front due to adrenaline, the possible desire to be the alpha, or the fear of being smashed in the middle of the pack or left in the rear may be just the motivation a new triathlete needs to push it too fast too hard in the beginning. Due to the lack of an annual or semi annual visit with a cardiologist (not a family doctor) for exercise stress test and other evals, one could discover en route that during this level of intensity they have a problem. As has been mentioned, in deep water and in conditions where it is difficult for rescuers to quickly spot you and get to you, this is not a good place for such a discovery. It looks like the New York Times is thinking along the same lines at www.nytimes.com/.../28fitness.html www.getactivetampa.com/Swimming-triathlon ocean swim.jpg