Sudden Death During Triathlon – Part 2

Last year I commented upon a medical study released at the annual American Academy of Cardiology regarding what the press reported on as the “high risk” of sudden death in triathlons when compared to other athletic events like the marathon.

You can find the podcast on Sudden Death in Triathletes here.

The study (or a variation of it ) has been published in the April 2010 issue of the Journal of American Medical Association. The research study by a group out of Minneapolis, Minnesota looked at the incidence of sudden death in triathletes participating in USA Triathlon-sanctioned races from 2006 through 2008 and found a total of 14 reported in-competition deaths. The vast majority of the deaths (13 of 14) occured during the swim portion of the triathlon, while the final fatality occurred on the bike due to a crash-related neck injury.

The overall statistics demonstrated the incidence of a fatality at a triathlon to be approximately 1.5 per 100,000 participants – or 3 fatalities for every 200,000 triathletes racing (since its hard to have a 0.5 fatality). A similar study looking at sudden death in marathoners found a rate of sudden death during an organized marathon to be approximately 0.8 runner deaths for every 100,000 participants in the marathon. Certainly lower that the reported in-competition fatality rate of triathlons. However, the marathon study also calculated the number of expected fatalities from motor vehicle accidents at the same time as the marathon and found that there was a reduction in the risk of dying in a motor vehicle accident of about 1.8 people (not counting the marathoners, unless Rosie Ruiz was making a comeback). So the marathon study actually demonstrated an actual benefit to the local community by reducing the number of motor vehicle fatalities.

While we can’t project the same motor vehicle fatality rates to the triathlons without knowing the historical incidence of motor vehicle accidents on the roads where the triathlons were held, it would be interesting to calculate the risk of a fatality while riding a bike on a closed-course versus open-road cycling while training for a triathlon as well as including the anticipated reduction in risk due to fatal motor vehicle accidents.