Two men die in Ironman Cork competition in Ireland
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It’s a sport that many get into later in life, not everyone has equal access to pools, and swimming in open water is much harder and scarier than swimming in a pool.
And those rocks look sharp. I would not want to be dashed against them.
I have done a (sprint distance) triathlon in conditions that were similar to this. I don’t know what happened in this race but in that one something like eight people had to be rescued from the water. I was also surprised that the swimming leg wasn’t canceled in that race.
However, I didn’t personally have any trouble swimming in those conditions, as someone who swam competitively all through middle and high school and can swim 3+ miles in the pool without trouble.
I think what makes swimming in triathlons so dangerous is that there is a wide range of swimming skill levels, and conditions that are reasonable for advanced swimmers can be deadly for newer ones. But organizers don’t want to cancel an expensive event that people have traveled internationally to compete in over weather conditions that are reasonable for prepared athletes.
I have also done a half Ironman and I think it is at that weird middle distance where people sign up for it with big plans to train aggressively, fall behind on their training, and then attempt it anyway and end up not finishing. Unfortunately, with the swimming component, under-preparation can be deadly.
I was a (barely) competitive high school swimmer, and was surprised to find myself dominating the swim leg of triathlons. But I'm a mediocre cyclist, and would find myself passed over and over through the second leg. (And occasionally make some of it back on the run leg.)
Two dead. How many quit midway, abandoned the race. That would also help add context. Rarely do people die in isolation, there were probably a lot of people struggling, they just happened to make it to a boat.
Their is a reason the swim happens first. Even for elite athletes the swim can be dangerous.
If you get tired running, you just walk, or stop.
If you get tired swimming you drown and die.
The risk factors for open water swimming are dramatically different from other sports. Many races get cancelled just based on water conditions.
I know its actually scary because I've seen some "countryside " swimmers get full panic for a third of that kinda waves.
There are levels to this and iron man organize should take that into account
I'm not sure under any other circumstances would the competitors have swam (or trained) in waters like that.
The weather was very bad, with the tailend of a bad storm that had passed through the previous day
Adding the word to the title doesn't make a huge difference to me "Two men die in Half Ironman Cork competition in Ireland"
>"They were competing in a so-called half Ironman event".
This seemed to indicate it was a lesser event. "so-called". But maybe it was just referring to a type of event. And it was just poor grammar?
Who knows, maybe it was GPT producing the text?
"IRONMAN" and "IRONMAN 70.3" are the official names, even though "full" and "half" are how they're commonly referenced.
"so-called" isn't diminutive or derogatory
This was screw up from organizers, they didn't want to cancel. Just shortened distance.
He's so young he may not have been screened properly. But a lot of people have difficulty affording to be screened.
There are different types of screening and Theranos was going to help society with some of it, but of course we all know how that went, and it probably set back advances in screening with technology.
Screening needs to become cheaper and more convenient. It's within YC's Request for Startups: https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs#healthcare
> Theranos may have been the worst-case scenario for the testing industry, but the big-picture idea — that testing should be faster and more convenient — is still true, Klapperich says. “Now, people are trying to sort out the question of what was real about what Theranos was saying. Because we still need this stuff.”
https://www.theverge.com/22834348/theranos-blood-testing-inn...
As for the weather, I can't judge from a couple videos. I have some experience but not with an Ironman. What I do know is that race organizers typically don't cancel just because the weather is going to make a race significantly harder.