Tag Archives: swimming and triathlon

Why I Also Almost Died During the 2012 New York City Ironman Triathlon

The following is an article written by Andrea Himmel. Andrea almost died from a condition called swimming induced pulmonary edema (SIPE). It dose a good job of shinning some light on a condition that looks to be the reasons for deaths in the swim of triathlon. Here is Andreas story

I wanted to share something about the man who died during the latest Ironman US Championships in New York City, and my personal experience with the same medical condition he suffered from during the race.

After a year of training and focusing my life on this race, I had to pull out around mile 56 of the bike ride. I had developed what I learned was a swimming induced pulmonary edema (SIPE), a form of high output heart failure.

Now, we hear from people involved in the Ironman medical circles that the man who died after the swim likely died from SIPE. Luckily, mine didn’t get to that point because I pulled out. But, from what I understand, it doesn’t take much at all to get from where I was to it being fatal. He was a 2.5 hr marathoner and extremely fit. (I note to you there’s no way of knowing for sure how he died, but consensus among the medical folks is this is the most likely cause.)
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