Every six months or so, some media outlet seems to dig up the "controversy" about how people die doing triathlons. This time, it was an article about men 40 and over and how they seem to be dying at higher rates than others in triathlon.
Plenty of people in the tri community have picked apart this article and why it is silly. Are triathlons risky? Yes. They are. So is crossing the street. So is getting on an airplane. So is going out on a blind date. Yet we seem to subject ourselves to these things every day without much worry.
My personal favorite quote from the article:
"Michael McClintock, 55, a bank executive who died June 2 at his home in Larchmont, N.Y., was a skier, biker and golfer. Last September, he completed his first Olympic-length triathlon, taking fewer than four hours to swim 0.9 miles, cycle 25 miles and run 6.2 miles."
Let's see... he completed a triathlon in September and then died at home the next JUNE. Yes... JUNE. That is nine months later -- unless I am reading this incorrectly. I have a feeling he probably didn't die from doing a triathlon.
Here are some things that ARE killing people according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (the notes are mine):
Number of deaths for leading causes of death
- Heart disease: 597,689 --- May be caused by diet (esp red meat)/lack of exercise/obesity
- Cancer: 574,743 --- Death risk increases with obesity
- Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 138,080 --- often caused by smoking; obesity can worsen symptoms
- Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 129,476 --- obesity increases the risk of stroke
- Accidents (unintentional injuries): 120,859 --- okay, so being out of shape may not increase the risk of these
- Alzheimer's disease: 83,494 -- obesity increases the risk of getting AD
- Diabetes: 69,071 -- Do I really need to even say it here???
- Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 50,476 -- can be a complication of, guess what??? Obesity.
- Influenza and Pneumonia: 50,097 --- Guess what can increase the severity/risk of hospitalization on these two? Yep! Obesity!!
- Intentional self-harm (suicide): 38,364 --- see any parts of this blog where I talk about depression
Looking at the above, I see that if we really want to prevent deaths we should be concerned with losing weight, getting in shape and getting the mental health care we need.
Triathlon training is a major contributor to improved physical and mental health and weight loss. So maybe we should spend more time reporting on how people can and should participate in physical activity and therapy and less time worrying about the very few people who die in triathlons.
NOTE: This DOES NOT MEAN we should not be safe in our sport. And the truth is, some people do die doing triathlons. Mostly during the swim. There are real risks and we should all learn to be safe as we swim, bike and run.
Here is a link to some resources if you want to read more about the topic. Here is another great article about what we can do to
improve the safety of the sport.
Labels: obesity, suicide, triathlon