Another triathlon death in swimming :(

Many triathletes do very little training in swimming. If you run too hard, you can stop running and walk. If you're biking too hard, you can get off and walk. If you don't know how to regulate your breathing during a swim, you're in trouble. I'm a good swimmer, but I find the bumping and jostling to be very upsetting.

do you know specifics not provided by the article? what was the water temperature? was the athlete in a wetsuit? does USAT have a water temperature at which wetsuits are not allowed?

Many triathletes do very little training in swimming. If you run too hard, you can stop running and walk. If you're biking too hard, you can get off and walk. If you don't know how to regulate your breathing during a swim, you're in trouble. I'm a good swimmer, but I find the bumping and jostling to be very upsetting. I agree with this 100%. I've been a pool swimmer since I was 7 on a year round team, with only a few years of a break between 26-31. I'm 35 now, and consider myself an experienced swimmer in good shape and good health. In OW conditions, I still get that Panic Attack shortly into the start of the race. I'm not sure exactly why, but I know how to just slow down, and relax a bit to control my breathing. Eventually I get going and am fine. An unexperienced person in the water, who knows what happens to them in Panic Attack mode, or the mass start situations? I always try to start off to the side of the front of the pack, and haven't yet had to fight my way through a pack.

I'm posting an exchange from FB... a brief conversation relating to the article between two of the most skilled support persons I know: M - Very, very sad! It was a well organized race with lots of support and coordinated effort. The Time Trial start released two swimmers from the barge every second and the usual start mayhem and washing machine was avoided. G- you were on the detail? M- I was kayak captain between 1400m-2000m. We had great boat support, great kayakers (one of them proud dad of two Ironmen racing today), great swimmers (only two had to get pulled) and good current. The swimmer who died today was almost at the finish, very tragic. M- I always ask myself if we could have done better. M‎- and by the way, the article claims that the "treacherous waters of the Hudson River" claimed his life. The river was calm and with a slight current with the swimmers. Perfect day for a swim.

Generalizing about how triathletes don't know how to swim, or don't know how to swim in a pack, is fun (and truthy, if not strictly true) but it's completely off-point for this tragedy. As you can see from reading the article as well as the excerpt chaos posted from a conversation between people who were there: (1) the race didn't have a mass start; and (2) the person died toward the end of the swim, not at the beginning. Furthermore, sarah_q's post links to a conversation mentioning that the person was a very experienced triathlete. They had a similar death at this year's Vineman, in Northern California--a very experienced triathlete had a medical emergency toward the end of the swim, and it turned out to be fatal. In both cases, I think that a previously undiagnosed heart abnormality, or high water temperature at least in the Vineman case, is far more likely than athlete underpreparedness to have been the cause.

what was the water temperature?According to the NOAA buoy at the Battery, water temp was 77-78F does USAT have a water temperature at which wetsuits are not allowed?Yes

forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi Very tragic.

To me, the bizarre thing is that all those athletes who died had wishes, or seemed to have had wishes, that the circumstances and cause of their death be kept private. That is the complete opposite of what i would want should i die on a swim (or ...). Rather, i'd want the details of the circumstances and actual cause to be widely, freely and openly investigated/disseminated so as to help other athletes either avoid the same fate, or to help other athletes understand and gage the unavoidable risks ... "is the pleasure/enjoyment that I will get out of the race worth the risk of not being alive for my children or spouse for their future?". I know of more than one climber/mountaineer whose spouses required them to give up rock climbing and mountaineering before agreeing to start a family, so such weighings do take place. Maybe the it is a byproduct of their ultra-competitiveness that elites (and others) want to keep the details private, i.e. don't share training/strategy/nutrition/psychology/... info that might help another athlete finish ahead. Since i am a) arguably non-elite and b) disinterested in group competitions, the by-product theory might, or might, not explain the difference. Or maybe the wishes of the deceased athletes are just not being honored.

does USAT have a water temperature at which wetsuits are not allowed? I did a triathlete-organized OW swim in Little Elm, TX a couple weeks ago. ALL of the triathletes competing in the 4K swim wore at least a knee to shoulder suit (sometime two-piece, sometime one-piece). One guy put a full wetsuit on. And this is in 86 degree water. To the race organizer's credit, he announced to everyone that due to the water temp, he wouldn't allow wetsuits...but he did allow the shirts. Now, as to the other "triathletey" things that happened, (plug coming...) you'll have to read my race report on my blog. ;)

Some pictures of the Ironman victim (Hong Kong cop).