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By: Jeremy T. Arnold, Cycling News Senior Writer
The term “heart” is used quite often in the world of sports.
Generally it is used in reference to an athlete’s determination or
tenacity rather than the organ that pumps blood throughout the
body, thus instilling an intangible, mystical connotation to the
expression. Rarely is the word used literally, and even rarer still,
is mention of the physical characteristics of an athlete’s heart in
the media. In the sport of cycling, heart (both literally and
figuratively speaking) is of paramount importance and it can be
argued that those gifted enough to make the professional ranks
of the sport have some of the most finely tuned tickers on the
planet. Why then have eight professional cyclists, all under the
age of 36, died of heart failure in the last 13 months? While
there has been no firm answer as of yet, theories have arisen
that shed light onto not only the frailties of the body’s most
important organ but on the potentially devastating implications of
a “Win at all costs” attitude that pervades the culture of sports
as well.
Marco Pantani, the last man to win the Tour de France and Giro d’
Italia in the same year, was found dead in his hotel room on St.
Valentine’s Day. At 34, he is the eighth elite cyclist to die of heart
failure in a little over a year. While Pantani had recently battled
depression and an addiction to cocaine, his death came as a
shock to the cycling world. “Il Pirata” or “The Pirate,” as he was
affectionately nicknamed, is the latest casualty in a sport that
continues to struggle with a reputation of drug use and a
growing list of deaths that has become too long to be labeled as
mere coincidence.
In 1999, on the eve of his second Giro d’Italia victory, Pantani
failed a blood test and was expelled from the race. A crushing
blow to his career and psyche, the test showed that his blood
hematocrit level was above the legal limit. Investigations by
Italian authorities into allegations of sporting fraud hounded
Pantani for the remainder of his racing days and cast him under a
shadow of suspicion along with numerous other riders during the
late ‘90’s and beyond whose hematocrit levels were found to be
too high.
An indicator of blood doping and the performance-enhancing drug
EPO, high hematocrit levels are a reflection of an abnormal
amount of red-blood cells in one’s blood stream. Red-blood cells
carry oxygen to the muscles and can greatly influence one’s
endurance in a sport such as cycling. In order for an athlete to
be accused of doping, the percentage of red-blood cells must
account for over half of his or her blood content. At 51% the rider
is subject to immediate suspension.
While other banned substances such as amphetamines and
corticoids have a long history in cycling, EPO has become the drug
of choice in recent years. Because red-blood cells occur naturally
and vary depending on the individual, it is difficult to determine
whether or not an athlete has been using the drug. Additionally,
EPO has a relatively long-lasting effect on the blood and can
therefore be administered according to the gaps that occur
between races in a seven month long professional season.
Every performance-enhancing drug has unwanted side effects
and EPO is no exception. Among those side effects listed for the
substance are an abnormal thickening of the blood to
compensate for the increase in red-blood cells and a low resting
heart rate. Highly conditioned athletes tend to have low resting
heart rates anyway, such as Lance Armstrong whose resting
heart rate of 32 beats per minute is roughly half that of a normal
man his age. This fact, combined with the aforementioned side
effects of EPO, could conceivably create an increased chance of
cardiac arrest. Therefore, a resting heart that beats very slowly,
delivering blood that has been thickened due to an outside agent
could be responsible for the rash of heart failures that have
stricken elite cycling. However, autopsy reports have yet to point
the finger at EPO use as a cause of death for any of the eight
deceased racers, so this theory remains yet another speculation
in the growing cloud covering the sport.
Another theory offered recently is that, quite simply put, the
heart can only beat a finite number of times before stopping. As
with any mechanism, whether biological or mechanical, the heart
is subject to wear and tear and no other sport taxes the muscle
as much as elite cycling. Due to the lack of physical impact on the
body during bicycle racing and training, it is possible for the body
to perform at an extremely high level of exertion over a very long
time. Using the Tour de France as an example, rider’s heart rates
fluctuate between 60 to 100% percent of their maximum for an
average of approximately five hours per day with only two days
of rest in a 23 day long event. Simple math shows that, just
during competition on an average day in the Tour de France, a
rider’s heart will beat approximately 50,000 times. Considering
that most professional cyclist begin seriously training in their
early teens and generally retire in their late thirties, it is
conceivable that they simply put their hearts under such an
inordinate amount of stress that they literally ride themselves to
death. While this theory is somewhat plausible over an extended
period of time, it does not fully address the fact that many of the
riders who have died of heart failure recently have been in their
early to mid-twenties and have likely not racked up the necessary
“mileage” to cause a heart attack.
In the current climate of professional sports, where more scrutiny
is being applied to the use of performance-enhancing substances
of all kinds, it is somewhat disturbing that very little U.S. media
attention has been focused on the recent deaths in cycling.
Additionally, the fact that Lance Armstrong was declared the
Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year in 2002 and the
Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year in 2003 would lead one
to assume that a rash of mysterious deaths in his sport should
make more headlines in this country. With growing concern
about the effect of performance enhancing drugs on sports as a
whole, maybe the recent tragedies in cycling will shift the focus
from the sports themselves to the athletes who participate in
them. In the ultra-competitive world of professional athletics
there will always be those who choose to break the rules in order
to gain an advantage, however, perhaps the interest should be
redirected from the effect on the competition to the effect on the
competitors. I’m sure that Marco Pantani’s friends, family and
fans would agree.
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