Olympic canoeing champion Kolonics dies

Gyorgy Kolonics, a canoeing gold medalist at the 1996 and 2000 Olympics, died Tuesday after collapsing in his canoe while training for the Beijing Games.

[cat]

Does anyone get a EKG and more before training for something like this or any sport game?
He was 36 - what's wrong with this picture?

[UKA]

cat wrote:

Does anyone get a EKG and more before training for something like this or any sport game?
He was 36 - what's wrong with this picture?

The only thing wrong with this picture is that it is a tragic loss of an amazing athlete and a nice guy.

[Sirius]

I hate tragedies like this :(

I'm not sure if they get EKG/heart work done before competing, though healthy 20-30 year olds don't just die.

There is always a cause, and most likely at this age it is a heart defect of some sort. Nutritional deficiencies or surpluses of potassium, magnesium, and sodium can also cause sudden death. Perhaps over training was a factor as well.