Ironman has confirmed the death of an athlete participating at Ironman Calella-Barcelona on Sunday. According to various news reports, the athlete was Elena Smirnova, 41, from St. Petersburg, Russia.
Here’s the official statement from Ironman:
We are devastated to confirm the death of a race participant during Sunday’s Ironman Calella-Barcelona triathlon. During the swim portion of the race, the athlete signaled for assistance to the water safety team who attended to the athlete quickly and extracted them from the water to the medical safety point. The athlete was provided with immediate care by the on-site medical team before being transported to the hospital. Despite best medical efforts, the athlete passed in the ambulance en route to hospital.
We share our greatest sympathies with the family and friends of the athlete and will continue to offer them our support as they go through this very difficult time. We thank the water safety team, medical personnel and volunteers who all worked quickly to provide the athlete with medical support.
Out of respect for the athlete and their family we will have no further comment at this time.
Smirnova finished Ironman 70.3 Bahrain last year in 6:13:13 and appears to have competed at the Rosa Run Festival, part of the UTMB series, in 2019. According to a report on the website argumenti.ru, the St. Petersburg “business woman” was in Spain alone “after three years of training in triathlon under the guidance of Moscow and St. Petersburg coaches.”
“She was a very good person,” Smirnova’s sister told Fontanka.ru, an independent online outlet based in St. Petersburg. (The story doesn’t identify her sister, but TASS, the Russian News Agency, reports that her name is Natalya Smirnova.) “She was like a ray of sunshine. Wherever she appeared, everyone was happy and cheerful. She had a very subtle sense of humour … (and) was always pleasant to talk to. She (was) intelligent and very beautiful.”
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