Event death leaves athletes questioning safety

SALT LAKE CITY-- Swimmers were "bobbing around like corks" and struggling in 3-foot waves last weekend when a competitor died at the inaugural Utah Ironman Triathlon.

"It was a fiasco," competitor Shawn Talbott said Tuesday.

John Boland of Redondo Beach, Calif., was pulled from Utah Lake early Saturday morning. Preliminary autopsy results indicated the 53-year-old Ironman veteran drowned, raising questions about the safety of such events.

Winds gusting to 50 mph forced organizers to cancel the swimming leg 20 minutes after it began. It was 10 minutes into the race when a volunteer spotted Boland floating motionless.

"We didn't know if he was resting. We just saw the body was not moving," said Curt Bramble, a Utah state senator and race volunteer.

Bramble, riding with his daughter in a motorboat, pulled Boland from the water and tried to revive him.

When boats pulled alongside swimmers to announce the race had been canceled, Bramble found some others in bad shape. He said 25-30 of them had to be "rescued."

"We had to pull them onto our boat," he said.

Ironman races include a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile run.

"Calling off the swim was the smartest thing, but maybe they shouldn't have even put us in the water," Talbott said.

Last year a cyclist died at Ironman California, which like the Utah race was a regional qualifier for the annual Ironman Triathlon. That event, drawing athletes from around the world, is staged each fall in Hawaii.

Shane Facteau, spokesman for Ironman North America, said the two deaths haven't led to changes in how the races are organized or staged.

"We haven't discussed it," Facteau said. "Right now, our hearts go out to the Boland family. Athletics at times can be dangerous. That's not to belittle what happened."

Facteau blamed "a lot of factors" for the mayhem.

The main problem, he said, was high winds that hit the lake just as the swim began. The swim, however, began 6 to 7 minutes before the scheduled 7 a.m. start because some competitors mistakenly started early.

"The race director was telling them to stay back, using a microphone and a public address system," Facteau said, adding that racers apparently didn't or couldn't listen to instructions.

Talbott spent 20 minutes in the lake before the race started, getting acclimated to the 70-degree water, and noticed the increasing winds.

"We were just bobbing around like corks out there," Talbott said. "If you were too close to shore, you were getting smacked against the rocks."

Talbott recalled confusion at the start area. Ironman races usually begin with a cannon shot, but Facteau said race officials fired the shot after seeing many participants start out early.

On the course, the big swells were an immediate problem to 1,500 athletes. With an average depth of 7 feet, Utah Lake is notorious for drownings when big waves are formed by high winds.

"I'm a strong swimmer. I wasn't concerned for my life," Talbott said. "But over the first third, you were swimming into the waves. You couldn't put three strokes together. ... It was impossible to hold a straight line."

The winds also blew numerous race buoys, each anchored by two cinderblocks, out of position. Bramble, who set buoys from his boat, chased down one that crossed the lake at 25-30 mph.

"I had to go that fast in my boat to catch up with it," he said.

A 30-year Provo resident, Bramble knew of Utah Lake's reputation as "a killer lake." In the hour before the race, he expressed concern to a race assistant who accompanied him on the boat.

"I was told that elite endurance athletes are used to swimming in big waves," Bramble said.

Facteau didn't know of Bramble's concerns until they appeared in news reports. He said race assistants who are assigned to boats typically have radios but no decision-making authority.

Facteau didn't know if Bramble's concerns were relayed to shore.

"It's hard to say what happened. The high winds may have made it impossible to hear anything on the radio," Facteau said.

This was the first year the Ironman qualifier was held in Utah, but Facteau said the organization plans to honor its five-year commitment to stage the event in Utah County.

Moving the swim to another lake is possible, although Facteau said no discussions have been held.

"We're devastated with the loss of an athlete," he said. "This is a tightknit community. We're just happy the rescue teams and everyone involved in the swim did a superior job."

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On the Net:

Ironman Utah site: http://www.ironmanutah.com