In the world of competitive sports, the tri-athalon is a bit like the pinnacle of the ultimate challenge. With swimming, cycling and running all featuring in this gruelling event, it is fast becoming one of the most popular sports in the country.
In the UK there are 350 triathlon clubs and 600 triathlon competitions taking place every year. Around 12,000 people will descend on London to compete in the city’s annual Triathlon event in August, making it the biggest of its kind in the world.
However, there are growing concerns over the limits people are pushing themselves after a recent spate of deaths in the event.
The results of a study presented at the American College of Cardiology Scientific Sessions conference, revealed people are twice as likely to die in a triathlon than in a marathon.
Heading the research was Dr Kevin Harris, of the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation, who said that it is a “not inconsequential” risk of 1.5 per 100,000 competitors. Harris looked at statistics from 2,846 triathlons in America and discovered there were 14 deaths out of 922,810. Out of the 14 people who died, 13 of the incidents occurred during the swim (one man fell from his bike). Harris reported the average age of the people who died as 43.
So what is it about the swimming that seems to pose such a threat? One of the more popular theories is that swimming in the open water instigates a specific type of cardiac arrhythmia as a result of the genetic condition long QT syndrome.
Dr Michael Ackerman, a cardiologist at the Windland Smith Rice Sudden Death Laboratory at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, who has been working on the triathlon link, reports that approximately 1 in 2,000 people has a condition they are born with that can cause problems with the heart’s wiring. Long QT syndrome is the most common type.
“In someone with long QT syndrome, the heart is sluggish between beats and these delayed intervals can give rise to skipped beats,” Ackerman says. “When that happens, the heart’s electrical system can go so badly off-course that it leads to a potentially fatal arrhythmia.”
Some experts feel the problems arise from swimming in open water, which is generally a lot colder than the pools the athletes train in. It is also suggested that the rush of adrenalin produced during the swim, which occurs at the start of a triathlon, could cause issues.
Dr Ese Stacey, the medical director of the London Triathlon, reminds us not to panic unnecessarily about the risks. “There is a risk of sudden death from an underlying heart problem if you walk down the street,” she says. “And the risk in triathlons is no greater than that.”
