Five-time Olympian cyclist found dead in Las Vegas after choking on food

MicroWave@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 247 points –
Five-time Olympian cyclist found dead in Las Vegas after choking on food
theguardian.com
26

This just kept getting sadder and sadder, RIP

Holy fuck is that depressing… former Olympian contender who was exiled from her home nation due to her political beliefs… became an Uber driver in Miami and then a food server in Los Vegas, at 50, before she choked to death at her solo apartment and was only found because her place of employment reported her missing. Holy fuck.

Thanks for saving me a click. Holy fuck indeed, RIP.

Exactly. I’m not an Olympian… I’ll never see the money that goes into a campaign to compete there. But, how crushing is my future at 50 going to be? If this Olympian contender got treated that way? How is my (dying) middle class, unfit ass going to survive in our dystopian future?

You grow some pretty flowers, read good books, and go for walks.
You'll die eventually, yes, might as well try to enjoy what you can along the way.

You connect with someone, pool your resources and efforts, and live together.
If nothing else, you’ll have someone to miss you when you choke to death.

But seriously, all we have is each other. Some folks may never partner up romantically, but they can still build their own sense of community and family. Cooking for 2 is easier than cooking for 1, and cooking for 4 is even easier still. According to realtor.com’s July rental report, a single bedroom apartment in the U.S. averages $1600, and a 2 bedroom is $1900. Splitting that 2 bedroom with a roommate is way more economical than going it alone. Paying bills, planning things, having a vehicle break down, needing to share housework — Life is just easier with community. Many hands make light work.

I’m not trying to paint a rosy picture. It seems right now that capitalism has “won.” With rare exception we’re all peasants, and we all face the same grim reality of being captive to systems that lower our quality of life and increase our challenges to strip every ounce of value from us and the environment around us. Maybe together, we can make it suck less, or at least try to.

Slam down on a chair or countertop if you are choking alone. Make sure you hit your diaphragm. It may save.

What might it save??? The suspension is killing me!

Some cash, ambulance is expensive

And do it as hard as you can, you might only have 1 shot at it.

Thanks for the clear instruction.
Incidentally choking alone reads like some kind of euphemism.

It's wild to me that the Heimlich Maneuver wasn't invented until the 70s

And the guy who invented it didn't ever have to use it for decades afterwards, it was purely theoretical to him.

For those of you who thought, gee who else has…

Ray Ewry (USA) - A track and field athlete who competed in the early 20th century. Ewry is reported to have died in 1937 by choking on food.

It kind of makes a perverse sort of sense. As an athlete (at least of the cyclist sort), you need a huge amount of calories and you also are all about speed. Putting those two together is definitely a risk.

How incredibly sad. Reminds me of that one Six Feet Under episode beginning with an identical premise.