By Brittany Burke
When I logged on to my Facebook Sunday night, I saw in my newsfeed a status update from the official Michael Phelps page that read, “We lost a great person and swimmer today. It’s a tragic loss. My thoughts and prayers are with his entire family.”
When I signed on to my Twitter account I saw that Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte tweeted, “Every one keep the crippen family in ur thoughts, and prayers…Much love to you guys!”
As it turns out the two updates link back to the premature death of American long-distance swimmer Fran Crippen. Crippen, 26, died while swimming in a 10K open water event on Oct. 23. A search party was sent out when he didn’t touch shore, and the body was found two hours later in the water, which was close to 90 degrees.
The notion that the race wasn’t called off due to the temperature is mind boggling, and clearly doesn’t take the swimmer’s safety into account. The climate has led to early reports stating that Crippen must have died of heat exhaustion, especially since the family claims nothing was physically wrong with the young swimmer.
While heat exhaustion may not be a plausible cause of death it made me wonder just how far an athlete would be willing to push his/her physical limits for the sport they love. At what point does passion cloud reality and endanger the athlete’s well being?
In choosing to push forward Crippen and the other swimmers put their lives at risk. In doing so, Crippen paid the ultimate price for the sport he thrived in and instead of getting his name in the record books, he gets his name added to the long list of athletes harmed by their sport.
Death may be the extreme consequence, and no one should be afraid to play a sport, but the possibility of injury shouldn’t be diminished and sugarcoated, safety should always be first, especially in collegiate athletics.
The NFL’s solution to decrease the amount of head injuries is to fine the athletes who made the dirty hits, but what does fining someone really do? It’s not like a football player doesn’t have money, getting fined will not teach them anything.
Player safety has to be taught and the athletes need to know their limits. College athletes don’t get paid millions of dollars to run out on to the field each week, so how will they learn?
Through awareness that begins in practice.
Rutgers football player Eric Legrand was paralyzed early in the season in a match against the Army, in an instant his whole life changed and the question surrounding the hit was whether or not he had his head down? Did he use the proper technique? If he had he might still be able to run out with his teammates each week, but that’s not the case.
Safety mechanics need to be taught and enforced. In writing this I’m not suggesting that the coaches and athletic department doesn’t take safety seriously, all I am asking is that precautions continue and remain in the forefront.
Whether playing for a CCSU NEC team or club team, nothing is more disappointing and heart wrenching than seeing someone with potential get severely injured due to something that could have been easily prevented.
The love of the sport isn’t worth the risk of a life.