Dying to compete

Ryan Shay had been considered one of the rising stars in the US Olympic marathon team in the lead up to Beijing 2008. On the morning of 3 November 2007, athletes from across the United States gathered in New York City for the pre-Olympic trials. The race began early in the morning, but five miles into the race, at precisely 8 06 am, Shay suddenly collapsed.1 Officials began cardiopulmonary resuscitation in an attempt to revive him, and he was taken to Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan but was pronounced dead at 8 46 am.2 In the same year, a US weightlifter, Jesse Marunde, died suddenly after a workout at his local gym.3

The link between these cases is that both deaths were sudden cardiac deaths, which is defined as death due to cardiac causes occurring within one hour of the onset of symptoms in a person without a previously recognised