Belgium cyclist Michael Goolaerts dies of a heart attack at 23

Karl Hungus wrote:

I'm thinking that this poor kid's death isn't PED related. Odds are it's something like hypertrophic cardiomyopathy which seems to kill distance runners (based on a NEJM article.)

So, it’s just a thing among young Belgian cyclists? In 2016 when 22 year old Daan Myngheer died of a heart attack in bike race it was also just that he had a bad heart? Sure, nothing to do with drugs. Nothing.

Daan Myngheer wrote:

Karl Hungus wrote:

I'm thinking that this poor kid's death isn't PED related. Odds are it's something like hypertrophic cardiomyopathy which seems to kill distance runners (based on a NEJM article.)

So, it’s just a thing among young Belgian cyclists? In 2016 when 22 year old Daan Myngheer died of a heart attack in bike race it was also just that he had a bad heart? Sure, nothing to do with drugs. Nothing.

Daan was riding for Veranda’s Willems team the year before he died, which is the team that Michael was riding for. That team must have the very bad luck of recruiting young Belgians with heart conditions.

Wow! Thanks for that video, Subway.

https://vimeo.com/244136994

Hautacam 1996 wrote:

Kddkkd wrote:

who is the TdF rider who allegedly has a 73% hematocrit level?

In his own words

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EIy1-hylTY

LOL, this is hilarious, I couldn't stop laughing, "heroin, crack, cocaine, speed, hash, pot, morphine, LSD, phantasy, opium" but when I heard him say "scunk" I nearly wet myself. But it gets better after all the great excuses: epo puddles, passionate kissing, the lady deserved a treat, tainted steaks, disappearing twins, all of which are comical but to hear him admit to "very strong industrial glue" that is classic.

Tough to say, perhaps a toxicology will be done, and an autopsy. A colleague of mine published a study some years ago looking at cardiac ischemia following a bout of sudden strenuous exercise. He took a group of young normal healthy people without cardiovascular disease, gave them a stress test with no warm up and had them run at an immediate, moderately high rate of speed and elevation on a treadmill. Almost all showed ECG evidence of cardiac ischemia.............meaning the rapid increase in the hearts demand for oxygen exceeded the supply.... if it persisted, a normal healthy individual could indeed have an MI with no coronary blockage. With a warm up the coronaries would vasodilate, but the sudden onset of hard exercise made that impossible. Given that this cyclist was already in the race, this likely was not the cause of his demise. An autopsy and toxicology may shed some light on it. Or not.

Anamolous Coronary Origin (ACO) has caused a sudden cardiac death in a large number of military recruits because if they are severely dehydrated it can cause the vessel to be compressed and spasm which induces the MI.

I included this other article that takes about ACO and describes this event as well, “Compression of the proximal anomalous coronary artery by the aorta and pulmonary artery may occur, especially while drinking alcohol or during exercise because of the aortic and pulmonary dilatation in response to the increased cardiac output, combined with increased coronary flow caused by myocardial demand“.

Probably best to just wait for autopsy.

https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/circj/69/12/69_12_1564/_pdfkl

Everyone saying it's doping should educate themselves a bit before making insensitive comments. A cardiac arrest is related to the electrical system in the heart. It has nothing to do with having overly thick blood from EPO, etc.

This thread is awful and there's zero chance it would have gone this direction if the dead athlete had been an American track runner.

Examples of cyclists keeling over and dying for doping related reasons mid event are exceptionally rare. I'm sure people can google one or two more but from memory most people have to go back to Tommy Simpson. The rash of EPO deaths almost all occurred at night. They were caused by a combination of nigh blood viscosity and low blood pressure (from sleeping). No matter how dirty the athlete these days no-one uses EPO as they did then and, needless to say, this guy did not have low blood pressure when he died.

We don't know why he died, it could have been Novichok on his handlebars. Until there's more information though the overwhelming likelihood is that this was caused by a congentital heart defect / HCM. Same thing that kills high school soccer and football players week in week out, same thing that (probably) killed Ryan Shay, same thing that killed Ugo Ehiogu, same thing that killed Richard Peverley, same thing that killed Wes Leonard. etc. etc.

I have HCM and was lucky enough to be diagnosed. I have a full heart work-up every year and have done since I was 30. I still run very competitively and hope that if I should one day keel over and die this board would at least wait for my body to cool before speculating about my doping regime.

Remember when Bekele's fiancée dropped dead?

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=688851

Its a tragedy.

Recently a young 15 year old cyclist died in similar circumstances. He had a congenital heart issue.

Hank Gathers was an athlete who died in his prime. Being fit and talented is not a preventative if you have a congenital issue

Wasn't it Bekele's girlfriend that just dropped over dead? A young healthy distance runner and then BAM drops dead.... hmmmmmm epoians indeed.

Subway Surfers Addiction wrote:

Over the years I have talked to some esteemed figures and my own doctor was an Olympic team Dr, and both he and Lydiard had said the same thing which is you can't kill yourself from exercise (especially in your early twenties etc) you would already know if you had a defect as a child, not many years into an elite career. Murray Halberg gives an excellent explanation early on in this

It is always too much reinfused blood, or too much synthetic blood products, or too many stimulants.

This is very very wrong and an outright dangerous comment.

There have been numerous riders/runners, bball players, pro athletes etc in late teens and early twenties who have died, or almost died from sudden cardiac arrest due to undiagnosed heart defects such as arrhythmia or hypertrophy.

There is absolutely no guarantee the athlete "would already know" if they had heart issues. It may be the athlete "feels" something is off, but they ignore it and don't get it diagnosed because they are so driven. Here's an example, one of many sadly, and what can be done about it:

and who's trying to help (there have been other organisations trying to get screening for college athletes as well).

Seriously. I have no idea on what drives people to post made-up BS on a topic as important as this.

As alluded to above:

I have been a competitive athlete since I was 12. Not top-flight but very keen amateur. When I was 16 I had a chest X-ray before a mountaineering trip and was told I had a slightly large heart that was attributed to my already being a keen runner. That was my entire pathology for heart issues until I was 29.

One Saturday I went out, got drunk and went to bed at 2 or 3. I got up at 6 on the Sunday and joined friends for a long "brick" - 6 hours on the bike and a 30 minute jog. Coming home on the bike something felt weird and fluttery in my chest. I nixed the run sat on my couch and my heartrate went completely haywire. It wasn't painful but instead of a repetitive thud my heart felt like a small animal squirming around in my chest. I drank a bunch of water, ate a bit and it calmed down. I went to a cardiologist two days later and after a battery of tests including an hour long MRI was diagnosed with pronounced HCM. Certain of my arteries are also oversized. I've never taken performance enhancing drugs of any sort.

This isn't a particularly dramatic or unusual story but it's important to know that many, many people are walking round with the ability to induce fatal heart arrhythmias in themselves. I know I'm one of them. It's not frequent enough to warrant every high school athlete getting the required diagnostic work done but the cold reality of that cost / benefit analysis is that young athletes will occasionally drop dead. And they do - Goolaerts may have been one of them.

Sher don't lie, She don't lie, She don't lie....Cocaine.

Sorry to hear that about you. Did the Doc give you the ok to still hammer hard, can you still race?

i guess even if the Doc gives warnings, some people just monitor themselves and take the risk, more so for pros.

i was going to mention Ryan Shay as well. Do you guys think he was doping?

Thanks. It's fine. The doc was willing to speculate that my state in that instance (exhausted from lack of sleep and with my body chemistry messed up from drinking) was the likely trigger for the episode. They didn't go so far as to suggest I change my training - most doctors are hardwired not to tell people who are active to be less so and I suspect, statistically, that that's the right approach.

Personally that episode coincided with kids and being a grown up so I don't do long hard triathlons anymore and I certainly don't drink like I used to. I do race up to and including marathons. I get an MRI and full work up every year and about 2 years after the episode my heart measurements stabilized and have remained so.

I'll probably still die of a heart attack - my grandfather and uncle both did despite being far fitter than I was - I just got a heads up.

TryHarder wrote:

Everyone saying it's doping should educate themselves a bit before making insensitive comments. A cardiac arrest is related to the electrical system in the heart. It has nothing to do with having overly thick blood from EPO, etc.

Aside from Goolaerts' tragic death (we don't know the autopsy results or if there was a pre-existing condition), many pharmaceuticals can cause heart failure which in turn can lead to cardiac arrest.

Piano_Man87 wrote:

Could've also been a congenital heart defect.

My guess as well. A much larger percentage of people have issues with their heart than they are aware of. The issues never rise to the surface until moments of extreme exhaustion.