San Pedro man collapses at Redondo Beach Triathlon, dies at local hospital
"Michael Giardino was finishing the swimming leg of the race near the Redondo Beach pier when he collapsed Sunday. The father of two experienced shortness of breath and was taken to an area hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to the Redondo Beach Patch website. Cause of death was not immediately known. Giardino was 48."
Since his father died of heart attack, it's possible it's the cause of his death, too, as in many triathlon fatalities. Why most heart attacks happened during swimming and not running?
there have been a number of threads related to this discussion point. 'why does the swim component account for so many triathlon deaths?' physiology-wise, there are things happening in the swim which do not occur in the bike and run. probably does not help that the swim is the initial event too, i.e. if it is your time you might not make it through a 10K run. I think it might be interesting to know the swimming experience of these fatalities, i.e. to gauge how comfortable the participant is in the water.
The local news write ups indicated that Mr. Giardino had participated in several running events; I didn't see any mention of swimming events, so my take-away was that swimming might have been new to him, which raises the possibility of "swim anxiety" as has been discussed in articles and threads. In addition to the possibility of a familial health issue given his father's heart attack, the articles made it seem like Mr. Giardino only had taken up exercise and competition after his dad's death, which only occurred a few years back.
The local news write ups indicated that Mr. Giardino had participated in several running events; I didn't see any mention of swimming events, so my take-away was that swimming might have been new to him, which raises the possibility of "swim anxiety" as has been discussed in articles and threads. In addition to the possibility of a familial health issue given his father's heart attack, the articles made it seem like Mr. Giardino only had taken up exercise and competition after his dad's death, which only occurred a few years back.
Just following up on this, I was at this race, and saw the ambulance as I came around the area finishing the run, and know the first responders. I don't know specific physical cause of death, but I don't think it was swim anxiety, solely for the fact that this race was originally designed so that for a good athlete each leg will take approx. the same time, so it's a .5 mile swim, 6 mile bike, 2 mile run (short tri, but hard to do if you try to go fast, basically 3 15 minute time trials one after the other). as a result, this swim is longer than most swims. This man exited the water after the swim and as he was exiting, started collapsing, the guards saw this and brought him all the way to the sand. There's a vid online of someone filiming their family member exiting the water and the guards are working on him, well up on the sand.
I would *think* that a swim anxiety issue would have occurred much earlier, given the length of the swim.
His son and daughter will be racing the tri next year, to finish what he started.
it's very sad to hear that someone has died in a race, whether it's a runner, swimmer, whatever. We all get up in the morning excited to go race, and sometimes people don't come home.
