Why Swimmers Drown, Presented By John Connolly & Nuala Moore
Why Swimmers Drown, Presented By John Connolly & Nuala Moore
Courtesy of Nuala Moore, Waterford City, Ireland. Nuala Moore and John Connolly presented at The International Drowning Prevention Research Seminar with The Lifesaving Foundation on Why Swimmers Drown on June 15th at the Waterford Institute of Technology. John Connolly gave an overview of reasons why swimmers get into difficulty in the open water and drown. He has published a number of research papers on this issue.
Connolly has studied why swimmers drown and published papers on two possible reasons: The First Time Problem and The Exit Problem. He leads self-rescue strategies for common drowning situations. “Most people drown because they don’t know how not to drown. This is called the I Am Not Drowning Project.”
Moore gave an presentation on the proper preparation for extreme swims. A faculty member of the Ocean Extreme Medicine course, Moore explained, “We have become completely desensitized to the concept of open water and concept of cold water. Both bring with them their own risks. There is a new category of swimmers who are at risk of drowning – the unprepared novice swimmer in extreme events. I was honored to share my thoughts on areas of how ‘Extreme Has Become Mainstream’ and, most importantly, how areas of social media reporting has appeared to have desensitized our responses to preparation for the extremes of open water by assessing the risks as they exist, and how security has develop without full understanding of the challenges of open water in its extreme form. Planning and preparation should include the safety plan of extraction and how swimmers themselves should look at teams with the capacity to rescue and recover and not just fill numbers. Much of the reporting of extreme swims fails to identify risks and, in this, lies areas of learning.”
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Southern California native, born 1962, is the creator of the WOWSA Awards, Oceans Seven, Openwaterpedia, Citrus Corps, World Open Water Swimming Association, Daily News of Open Water Swimming, Global Open Water Swimming Conference. He is Chief Executive Officer of KAATSU Global and KAATSU Research Institute. Inductee in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame (Honor Swimmer, Class of 2001) and Ice Swimming Hall of Fame (Honor Contributor - Media, Class of 2019), recipient of the International Swimming Hall of Fame's Poseidon Award (2016), International Swimming Hall of Fame's Irving Davids-Captain Roger Wheeler Memorial Award (2010), USA Swimming's Glen S. Hummer Award (2007, 2010) and Harvard University's John B. Imrie Award (1984). Served on the FINA Technical Open Water Swimming Committee and as Technical Delegate with the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games, and 9-time USA Swimming coaching staff. Note: WOWSA only recommends products or services used or recommended by the community. WOWSA does not receive compensation for links or products mentioned on this site or in blog posts. If it does, it will be indicated clearly on that specific post. See WOWSA's privacy policy for more information.
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