Questionable Maneuver
Hurdle's Death Spurs Examination of Breath-Hold Dives

By Christian Swezey
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, September 4, 2001;

Despite the dangers, competitive swimmers say that breathing-controlled workouts similar to the one that led to the death of a Navy swimmer last month are common among elite competitors.

On Aug. 10, sophomore Midshipman Kyle Hurdle passed out while attempting to swim 75 meters underwater at the Warwick Yacht Club in Newport News, Va. Lifeguards were unable to revive him. His death was attributed to a shallow water blackout, which can occur when a swimmer purposely hyperventilates before going underwater.

Hyperventilating decreases carbon dioxide levels in the bloodstream. Because carbon dioxide provides the body's primary urge to breathe, reduced levels of it allow swimmers to stay underwater longer. The risk, however, is that a swimmer can lose consciousness and drown.

Olympic silver medalist Josh Davis is among the world-class swimmers who admits he has used this practice to increase his lung capacity and has said such workouts are common.

"I'd be willing to bet 70 percent of the guys here, if you took a survey, have swum underwater for 50 meters or more," Davis said by phone from the U.S. national championships in August. "In fact, if you had a contest at this meet, everybody would sign up for it. In college, I worked up to 75 meters underwater.

"The thing that separates [Hurdle] from everybody else is he did it by himself. Most folks know that you just don't do that."

Recent Lake Braddock graduate Mike Anstrom, an All-Met this past year who will swim for Syracuse, hyperventilates and then swims 25 or 50 meters underwater every two days as part of his normal training routine.

He also hyperventilates before swimming in big meets. He credits part of his success -- he won the Virginia AAA state title in the 100-meter freestyle and finished second in the 50 freestyle -- to limiting himself to one breath during the 50-meter race.

Anstrom calls the workouts "lung busters."

"The more times you breath, the slower you go," Anstrom said. "I really push myself hard. I tend to see different colors and spots when I finish. It is scary. I am pushing my limit the whole time. I am aware of the risks, but I have not had any problems with passing out yet."

Anstrom said he first noticed the effectiveness of the workouts when he became serious about swimming four years ago.

"When I got real serious about swimming I limited myself to one breath" in the 50 freestyle, Anstrom said. "There is a substantial difference. When I was visiting colleges, it seemed a lot of people did these workouts. . . . I do not want to change. I am a little hesitant now, but I will still do the same workout."

Anstrom's feats drew the attention of several swimmers and coaches at the state meet. South Lakes Coach Scott Brown said he was "amazed" by Anstrom's taking one breath in the 50-meter free.

"I remember watching him and it was remarkable," Brown said. "You do not see that at the high school level. It was pretty amazing to watch. . . . But when my team does breath-controlled workouts, they always do them on the surface of the water. I have never had them do anything underwater. The training that is done with high school kids is not nearly as sophisticated as the elite swimming."

Steuart Martens, a recent Whitman High graduate and an All-Met this past year, agreed that most high school swimmers do not perform the workouts Anstrom does.

"The most I have ever swam underwater is 60 yards," Martens said. "When I do that, it always takes me a couple of minutes to get myself together and get my head to stop spinning. I do not do it as part of my training and I do not think it has anything to do with training at an elite level. The only purpose I think it serves is for clowning around with your friends."

National High School Federation rules mandate that swimmers break the surface of the water after the first 15 meters of a race. But the swimmer is not required to take a breath.

"We do not want the kids to stay underwater too long," said Cynthia Doyle, the editor of the NHSF's swimming and diving rule book. "A swimmer may do these workouts on his own or away from his coaches. I am not saying that would not happen. But hopefully, coaches are watching to make sure the practices are healthy and they talk to the kids about staying healthy."

Wally Refro, director of public affairs for the NCAA, said a regulation preventing such workouts at the college level would be "unenforceable."

"Especially in individual championship sports, like swimming and wrestling, these . . . athletes are trying on their own to achieve something," Renfro said. "When something tragic happens, you look back at how do you prevent it and it is pretty hard. . . . Especially in voluntary workouts, you have a hard time assuring compliance."

The term "Shallow Water Blackout" was first used by the British Royal Navy in World War II.

Several Royal Navy divers drowned after they passed out underwater because of a lack of carbon dioxide from their oxygen tanks.

The U.S. Navy officially did not address shallow water blackout -- or "breath-hold blackout," as some Navy doctors refer to it -- in their diving manuals until 1988. Then, the manual had one paragraph about the dangers of hyperventilating before diving.

In October 1998, however, three Navy sailors drowned from shallow water blackouts while diving.

The Navy Diving Manual, written in 1999, has two pages on shallow water blackout. Now, Navy divers are not allowed to take more than two to three breaths before doing a breath-hold dive.

"People need to be aware that this is something you can get into trouble with at your local pool," said Capt. David Southerland, M.D., the senior medical officer for the Navy Experimental Diving Unit in Panama City, Fla. "Hyperventilating used to be good, it used to be the thing to do. But then, so was smoking."

The Navy has an easier time regulating hyperventilating before diving than most swimming governing bodies would, according to Bruce Wigo, executive director of U.S. Water Polo, because Navy divers are almost always supervised.

Swimmers often do breath-hold workouts with teammates or lifeguards watching but without coaching supervision. There are not believed to be long-term health risks from doing the workouts, but the immediate danger is evident. Wigo learned from experience.

His oldest son, Wolf, a two-time member of the Olympic water polo team, nearly drowned from a shallow water blackout in the family's backyard pool in December 1999.

Bruce Wigo pulled his son out of the pool and revived him with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

Wolf Wigo was in such pain that he did not move from the poolside for more than an hour. He had to take antibiotics for three weeks because his lungs were infected from the chlorine in the pool and it was nearly a year before he could have water in his throat and not choke.

Wolf Wigo later told his father he had no memory of the incident, only that he had a dream he had swum out of the pool under his own power.

"People need to know how dangerous this is," Bruce Wigo said. "We need to get the information out there. We were having a barbeque in the backyard and the next thing I know, I nearly lost my son. . . . Football has heat stroke. Swimming has shallow water blackout."

Richard Quick, the coach of the U.S. women's Olympic swim team, also knows the dangers of shallow water blackout. Nearly three decades ago, Quick served as a volunteer assistant for a club team while attending Southern Methodist University.

After a particularly hard workout, Quick said he "jokingly" told the team to finish the day by swimming 50 meters without taking a breath.

"Most of the kids held their breath for maybe 15 or 20 meters," said Quick, who also is the women's coach at Stanford. "But there's this one 12-year-old girl who's going 50 meters without taking a breath. . . . I remember getting this sick feeling because I knew she would be in trouble. I took off running to the other end of the pool."

Quick jumped in and pulled the girl out of the water. She had blacked out but eventually was all right.

"I said, 'I'm an idiot' " Quick said. "I'm not doing [the drill] again."

© 2001 The Washington Post Company

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