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The B.C. Coroners Service is investigating the death of a 67-year-old man at an open water swim event on Okanagan Lake this past weekend.
Police say the man was taking part in the Across the Lake swim event, which has been running since 1949.
In a release, West Kelowna RCMP said the man was found unresponsive in the water roughly two hours after he started the event and was taken to shore. Attempts by B.C. Ambulance crews to resuscitate him failed.
Police in Kelowna say a man taking part in a mass swim died over the weekend. The event called Across the Lake Swim, attracts more than 1,000 swimmers each year on a course across Okanagan Lake.
Multiple race participants reported being blown off course by high winds and choppy waters unlike those they’ve experienced in past years.
About the event
Event organizers have yet to comment on the death.
According to the event’s website, Across the Lake is “the largest and longest continuously running open water swim event in Canada.”
Participants swim either 2.1 kilometres or 1.5 kilometres, starting in West Kelowna and ending at Hot Sands Beach in Kelowna.
The event includes a competitive category and open swims for all ages. Roughly 1,200 people registered for this year’s competition.
Support paddlers — people in boats or paddleboards who provide support to swimmers — are allowed but are not required for participation, the website says.
Choppy waters
Many participants have reported challenging conditions that took them off course.
Tiana Langedyk said she was among those pulled off course as winds picked up.
“A lot of my fellow swimmers and our support paddlers were also going off course … I was swimming as hard as I could [and] I realized I wasn’t moving,” she said.
“It was a scary moment.”
Karlyn Pipes, a former lifeguard and past participant in Across the Lakes, watched the event from shore and said she could see dozens of participants and paddlers being taken off course as they came to the middle of the water.
“On either side it was relatively calm, but as soon as they hit the middle … they were getting pushed out into the water,” she said.
Even the fastest swimmers, she said, were being challenged.
Safety measures
Pipes said it would have been difficult for organizers to anticipate the challenges.
The wind seemed to pick up mid-race, she said, and once people started being pushed around there was no choice but to continue.
“You can’t sit there and say everybody get in a boat. If you look at the video, there were hundreds of water safety [craft] out there,” she said, adding that there were many instances of people being helped as they encountered problems.
Pipes suggested future events could mandate the inclusion of flotation devices tied to participants so they have something to cling onto if they encounter problems.
“I have swum in races in Europe and it is mandatory of adults,” she said.
Investigation ongoing
Pipes said it would be useful to know if the individual who died had a flotation device, and she also had questions about whether he may have encountered a medical emergency that led to him being unconscious out on the water.
“If he had a medical condition or something, this is different than somebody who just got overly tired and couldn’t continue,” she said, offering her condolences to family.
RCMP have called the death a drowning, but have referred the case to the B.C. Coroners Service for an official cause of death.
The coroner’s office says it doesn’t usually provide details due to privacy concerns and it may be several months before its investigation is completed.
It marks the fifth death on Okanagan Lake in the past few weeks.