Why a Triathlon Swim Gets Canceled (And Who Makes the Call) – Triathlete

Swims being canceled in races due to bad weather or dangerous conditions isn’t anything new — it’s been happening for as long as the sport has been in existence. But it never ceases to be anything less of a controversial topic, not least because races are more expensive than ever and athletes entering a triathlon want the full swim, bike, run experience. But at what cost? And what happens if something goes wrong?

When a swim is canceled or adjusted at a race — often on race morning or the day before — the athletes who are left on the beach wondering “What if?” about their now-canceled swim are likely not seeing all perspectives.

They aren’t hearing the conversation that happened at 4 a.m. between the race director and medical staff. They aren’t considering the lifeguard-to-swimmer ratio, or which agency actually owns the call, or the insurance requirements.

So we put the question to three people who’ve been on the other side of it: a race director, a water safety expert, and an attorney who has spent 35 years in outdoor recreation law.

Perhaps it’s unsurprising that they don’t agree. The race director and the water safety expert land in the same place, and it’s the point that’s hardest to accept while you’re standing on the sand in a wetsuit: The swim doesn’t get canceled for the strongest athlete in the field. It gets canceled for the weakest one. But the attorney sees it differently.

Our expert panel

Lance Panigutti: Race director at Without Limits, a Colorado-based endurance events company; former pro triathlete.

Bruckner Chase: President and CEO of Ocean Positive, a nonprofit working in coastal safety, science, and conservation; ocean lifeguard and lifeguard EMT who works part-time as a beach medic in South Jersey; coastal safety expert for NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration); former pro triathlete. He has run an ocean swim workout in Ocean City, New Jersey, for 19 years.

Jim Moss: Attorney with 35 years of experience in outdoor recreation law.

Triathlete: Are swims being canceled or adjusted more often than they used to be?

Chase: I have seen more swims getting canceled or dramatically adjusted. I’ve served as the water safety advisor on some large events here, including a couple of Ironman 70.3 events, so I’ve been involved in evaluating conditions and making adjustments to the course. My perception is that it’s probably a good thing — and this is a sweeping statement I want to qualify. I’ve seen more people entering open-water swims who are unprepared for conditions that may be outside the ordinary.

Moss: It’s happening now quite often because we’re having triathlons in places we didn’t have them 25 years ago. Can you think of any triathlon that wasn’t in a beachside community, or a lake in the middle of summer? It was a hot summer sport until, what, the last 10 years. There’s a big difference in how things have evolved; we found people who are willing to throw themselves into cold water that we didn’t have years ago.

Triathlete: How does a decision to cancel a swim actually get made? Who’s in the room, and what information are they looking at?

Panigutti: Sometimes it’s black and white, like when there’s lightning or when E. coli levels spike, but other times it’s subjective when there are high winds. In the subjective case it’s typically a group decision between my medical director, water support team, and lifeguard staff. Over the last 19 years, we’ve had to cancel swims for a variety of reasons: E. coli, lightning, and temperatures in the low 50s.

Chase: The decision to cancel or adjust would usually be made between the race director, swim safety expert or head lifeguard, and whoever the emergency management representative is for that jurisdiction.

I have rescued more triathletes and masters adult swimmers in ocean workouts than I have rescued beach visitors when I was working as a lifeguard. I think a lot of people do not understand or respect what ocean or dynamic water conditions are, and how they will impact them.

Moss: In many state and local parks, city parks, county parks, the county would always have the authority [to cancel a swim or race], unless the contract said otherwise. So the county usually would have that right. And then the organizer would always have that right. The participants have that right too, just by deciding not to participate. You can put anybody in the room you want to get advice from as to the situation, but there’s no requirement to have anybody else in the room.

Triathlete: When it comes to canceling a swim, should there be published, objective thresholds — such as water temperature, surf height, wind, water quality — or does the call have to stay a judgment made in the moment?

Panigutti: Personally, I don’t think there can ever be objective hard and fast thresholds because every lake, ocean, river is different, and coupled with that, the water support team and resources vary from race to race. While we might have 10 kayaks, two water safety jet skis, and two safety boats all for a swim close to shore that’s half a mile, other races might have less or more resources, which directly impacts the ability to hold a race in questionable conditions. When it comes to temperature, the distance of the swim and air temperature need to be factored in, so again there’s no clear-cut guideline I can give you.

Chase: On some beaches they’ll use risk warning flags: double red, red, yellow, green. We have a flag system we use for our Ocean City Swim Club, and we publish to people coming what that flag means. We tell them what wind conditions will create on the water, surf, water temperatures, as well as the expected experience level of that swimmer.

What I think would serve race directors is something that is somewhat standardized. If you look at Blue IQ [a resource Bruckner helped develop for NOAA to improve beach safety], what we are trying to do is translate wind or waves into something relatable to someone from Boise, as opposed to someone from LA who does regular ocean workouts.

Moss: I had some friends who ran kayak trips in Ecuador. They had an 80-degree rule: They didn’t take a trip out unless it was 80 degrees and the water temperature was 80 degrees. That wouldn’t work in Alaska.

The first time you come up with a rule, you’re going to come up with an alternative reason why the rule doesn’t work. And on top of that, once you create the rule, once you create the standard, then you guarantee yourself you’re going to have a lawsuit. Because there’s no way the rule’s going to apply in every situation, and somebody breaks the rule and somebody gets hurt. Once the rule is broken, then you’re in big trouble.

Triathlete: Where’s the line between a swim that’s genuinely unsafe and a swim that’s safe only with adequate water safety coverage in place?

Chase: There’s the danger that the ocean or the water might present. Then there’s population-level risk, and then there’s individual-level risk.

If I’m standing in front of six-foot surf, 68-degree water, 20 mph cross-beach winds and currents, the risk for me swimming out through that is relatively low. But if you bring someone who’s been swimming for a couple of months, and it’s their first time in the ocean, the risk is extremely high.

[At our ocean workouts] we have a ratio we try to maintain for our swims: one lifeguard to 15 swimmers. But if we’ve got a lot of first-timers or drop-ins, we’ll stay within that ratio and then position lifeguards and resources to accommodate high-risk areas, like going in and out through the surf. We’ll also strongly encourage people that this may not be the swim for them.

We tell people that the most dangerous thing in any body of water is your perception of your ability. People only get into trouble if their swimming ability does not match or exceed the conditions around them.

That’s a tough love conversation sometimes. And then you add in an Ironman race where the financial commitment is really high; it’s a tough conversation for a race director to have if they’re then faced with refunding money because they just told someone they can’t race.

Moss: The first line is: The participants came, the participants understand the risk. When somebody drowns, or goes underwater because of a medical condition, they can go faster than the kayaker can see. They can go faster than anybody can see. They can be swimming along, and you move your eyes away, and they’re gone. So unless you assign one kayaker or safety swimmer per participant, that’s still going to be a big issue.

Legally, we can run an event [with waivers] without any major concerns about getting sued. At the same time, we may kill somebody, for example, because the water is cold and the air is 85 degrees, which creates a medical condition that causes heart attacks when there’s sudden full-body immersion into cold water. So sure, we can put on the race, but do we want to live with the fact that we put on a race somebody died in?

Those are valid questions every race organizer has to go through. Now, that’s always balanced by the competing issues of: We need the money, we spent the money. If we cancel the race, do we have to give everyone a refund?

Triathlete: Is there a defensible middle ground between running the full swim and canceling it — shortening the course, or letting pros swim but not age-groupers?

Panigutti: We’re dealing with dynamic environments that are constantly changing, so depending on the situation, there’s typically a solution to run a shorter swim, or adjust the swim to be close to shore. Swimming at your own risk is never an option, but I’ve also competed in races where we swam as pros, but the age-groupers had a duathlon. There are so many factors to consider that unless it’s lightning, algae, or E. coli. Each situation needs to be handled on a case-by-case basis.

Chase: Take fog — in somewhere like Santa Cruz [where Chase used to live], it can hit in three minutes, and getting everyone out of the water fast enough is a real problem. You’re looking at two things: You’ve got to shorten the swim so it’s within reasonable visibility, and pack the buoys and the lifeguards. But then you’ve got a land commitment where you can’t have the race start three hours later and impact police and roads. I think a lot of it comes down to money and logistics, because you’ve got road closures only up until a certain time. I think shortening or canceling is the way to go.

Moss: Yes, there is always a defensible middle ground between running the full swim and canceling it. Anytime you do something to reduce the risk, you’ve got a very defensible situation. Not letting amateurs swim — sure, that’s easy. Shortening the course, people do that all the time.

Triathlete: How much does liability actually drive this? Do waivers — or telling people to swim at their own risk — protect a race?

Panigutti: Liability is always a factor, but a good race director is making this decision based on the physical safety of all their athletes, not on what a waiver is supposed to cover.

Chase: You have to have it [a waiver]. It’s a standard. You need a waiver so someone’s informed, along with the other basics, such as certified lifeguards and tracking people in and out. It’s something you could legally point to in order to absolve you of risk.

In most cases, a case is going to be based on showing negligence. So even with a waiver, if the race director was negligent in allowing the swim to proceed, if they were told by their swim expert or their operational staff you need to cancel this and they did it anyway, and they’re shown to be negligent, the waiver is the least of it. That’s not even a piece of paper to stand behind.

I’ve been an expert witness in cases. Waivers don’t really mean anything. Someone can say, “Yeah, I’ll swim at my own risk,” and that won’t stop them from suing you, because what they’ll say is: “I didn’t know enough to make that decision. You’re the expert. You should have told me.”

Swim at your own risk is not really an answer because that just opens up so much exposure.

Moss: Do waivers protect a race? Very much so. There are roughly seven or eight states where a release would not work. But in the other 42 or 43 states, releases work. It has to be written properly, and it has to meet the laws of the state where the activity is being held.

For most places, “swim at your own risk” is a pretty valid defense, because it’s notice that you should understand the risk before you proceed.

On top of that, the professionals have essentially zero chance of suing because of the assumption of risk defense. They’ve been doing this for years; they know the risk, they take on the risk, they consider themselves professionals, so they really can’t sue.

The amateurs would have a very difficult time too, because they’d have to argue it was their first race and they never really understood the risk. Well, if they had trained at all, that’s not going to fly. So other than rank beginners who have never seen a triathlon or watched one or participated in one, assumption of risk in triathlon is probably going to work [as a defense]. And assumption of risk is a valid defense in all 50 states.

Triathlete: What does the triathlon community get most wrong about this?

Moss: I don’t know if they’re getting anything wrong at all.

Panigutti: The triathlon community sees a cancelation for high winds and surf or cold temperatures and the majority of the athletes go, “I could swim in that just fine.” What they don’t factor in is that these decisions are made for the safety of 100% of the athletes, not just the top-tier elite or age-groupers.

Chase: They overestimate swimming competency. They mistake swimming fitness for water confidence. I spent time working with the U.S. Coast Guard swimmer program, and they don’t care about having the fastest, best swimmers. It’s about having the people who are the most water-competent, who — no matter what the ocean or water has — they’re ready for it.