Two die in the Ironman at Youghal

I’m a very experienced open water swimmer and triathlete. I’ve done numerous long distance races and marathon swims. I’ve also acted as race safety officer at medium sized(500+) participants.  I wasn’t in Cork but in looking at the photos and videos and reading the reports the swim conditions looked very borderline for a triathlon. To me they looked worse than 2019 when the swim was cancelled (I did do that race). 

I swim Leinster Open Sea races and those conditions would probably have been ok for that type of race (as long as the safety boats could safely operate) where in the main you have experienced open water swimmers not depending on wetsuits for buoyancy / support and who haven’t been training for months across three disciplines or paid €700 to enter and so aren’t under pressure to race on the day. 

A lot of people who enter IM races are poor inexperienced swimmers and can’t deal with the sorts of conditions encountered over the weekend. Whilst that’s not the way it should be that’s the reality and Ironman know this. They sell a bullshit narrative to novices about the Ironman journey and anything is possible and so people believe it. Poor swimmers need to be protected from themselves by competent water safety officials (not saying the two who died were poor swimmers, I’m making a general observation). 

There were other issues from looking at he footage 

- that swim entry was not a safe starting point for that many swimmers IMO

-the course buoys were red and so were many of the swimmers hats, which when combined with high waves makes sighting extremely difficult

-safety boats were struggling in the conditions, which for a race should mean cancellation 

Ironman don’t need TI’s approval to run a race, but it gets them access to the Irish triathlon clubs and volunteers to marshal the race; TI then get a load of money in return in the form of one day race licences. Sure the President of TI used to run his long distance races without TI sanction.

What happened was desperately sad, and if these deaths were due to drowning then Ironman and TI have a lot to answer for.

And responsibility still goes back on the organisers if the conditions were unsafe and they chose to continue the event. This tends to be one of the reasons why the likes of running clubs and such prefer locally organised events. They actually care about getting permission to host again the following year.

Where are people getting these numbers?

There wasn't even 2000 competing. They were let into the water over 90 mins, and most would have been out in under 30 mins.

Ahh so your one of those people who likes to blame the victims....

...and never underestimate the power of adrenaline, we have a tendency of overlooking even serious risks when it gets going, this is where in such situations, organisations are needed to deem the situation is actually safe, theres clearly something wrong with the functioning of the organisation that ran this, they need to be held accountable....

...well cause im a member of boards, as all the rest of us are, and im entitled to my opinion, again, as all other members are....

...again, adrenaline, never ever underestimate its dangerous, ive nearly leaned this the hard way myself, i was in an potentially dangerous situation myself last year, could have easily died, thankfully there were experienced personal around me, and alerted me to the dangers occurring, they probably saved my life....

All the articles are referencing 2000 participants. I understand the staggered entry times but from watching the videos of them entering, the state of the sea and my experience driving safety boats for water events I cant see how anyone thought this was safe to go ahead, its incredibly easy to lose sight of people in rough water even if its not very deep. Ive never participated in one of these events specifically but ive had to watch people in rough water and keep track of them and if you have 100 people in a crowded group in rough seas you are not going to notice if you suddenly only have 99 visible.

Come on. Headlines very rarely clear up anything. They quite often contradict what's actually in the article.

You say it was everyones choice to enter the water? Simple logic means you must also then think anyone injured or hurt as a result has nobody but themselves to blame surely?

Worth reposting for its content as as a robust counterpoint to the keyboard experts.

Good point about the hats and the buoys being the same colour. Would have thought all contestants would be issued bright coloured hats that were a different colour from the buoys.

Were the safety boats struggling? I read that conditions weren't that bad past the break. If they were struggling then that is in issue. Do you know what sort of communication there was between the boats and also observers on shore? I assume they all had radios. Are there any guard towers down there?

Like I said earlier, I didn't think the conditions looked that bad. Based purely on the footage I've seen. I've competed in bigger and nastier stuff than that in the past. On reflection that's viewing it through surf race/sea swim eyes. As you and others have mentioned, triathletes generally aren't used to those sort of conditions.