Fran Crippen, 26 year old swimmer Dies at an Open Water Swimming Event-Potential Hazards of the Sport revealed
Open water swimming is a very interesting sport, it is, as the name suggests, competing in the open water as opposed to a pool. There are various different types of events that take place all over the world and in differing lengths.
Recently a US national swimming team member died from overexertion while competing at an open water swimming event in the United Arab Emirates. The problem seems to have been the very hot water that the swimmers were competing in. Swimmers criticised the
organisers for not providing adequate safety precautions and they said the water was too hot to compete in and the organisers failed to cancel the event. This is a bad mark on the record of this Olympic Sport and hopefully this type of tragedy can be avoided
in the future.
Open water swimming is a sport where swimmers compete against each other in any sort of body of water such as a river, lake, bay, canal or ocean. Open water swimming is very different to regular swimming in a pool because the open water is a much more unpredictable
place than the temperature controlled, safe and secure environment of an Olympic swimming pool.
The history of the event stretches back to 1810, when the famous poet Lord Byron swam across a stretch of water then called the Hellespont which connects Europe to Asia. The first time it was included in the Olympic Games was in the first Modern Olympic
Games in 1896, when the swimming competitions were held in open water. In more recent times, the sport was included in the 2000 Games, when the triathlon featured a 1500 metre swimming leg of the event. In Beijing, at the 2008 Olympic Games, a 10 km open water
race was included as part of the swimming events for that year. The governing body of the sport FINA holds 5, 10 and even 25 km open water races as part of its World Championships.
Recently an open water racing event was held in Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The race was supposed to be a competitive event on the swimming world’s calendar but it turned into a much more tragic scene than it was ever imagined to become.
A 26 year old swimmer, Fran Crippen, who was a US national team swimmer, was found dead after the race that took place last weekend. The cause of his death has been attributed to overexertion. A lot of the other swimmers at the event felt that the hot water
contributed to Fran’s death. A large proportion of the swimmers thought that the water was extremely hot and unfit to be swimming in.
The UAE race organisers stated that they measured the water before the race and it was 29 degrees Celsius, which they felt was perfectly acceptable to race in. But the swimmers taking part in the race felt the water temperature was higher and was close to
30 C and that is too hot to swim in. A lot of the swimmers felt confused and disorientated after the race which was a clear sign of the water being too hot.
Other criticism was heaped onto the organisers because after Fran was found to be missing numerous divers jumped back into the water to find him. This they felt should never have happened because there should have been lifeboats and lifeguards on hand to
find lost swimmers. Several female swimmers said there were no boats accompanying them and two American female swimmers and a Brazilian man were all taken to the hospital along with Fran after the race with heat related symptoms.
This race was a disaster from all regards and is a very poor mark on the UAE swimming association and it is unlikely that any swimmer will travel to the country to swim in an open water event any time soon. A full investigation has been launched into the
incident and the race overall and FINA will comment on the findings soon. It is very surprising that in this day and age a tragedy like this can occur in a professional swimming race. Organisers will have to take serious precautions that nothing like this
ever happens again.
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