Last year’s Taipei Marathon held in December 2021 which is an annual marathon since 1986 and one of two World Athletics Label Road Races held in Taiwan witnessed five athletes collapsing during its route.
Last year’s Taipei Marathon featured 12 elite international competitors who according to the event’s organizers were all required to remain in quarantine for 14 days and adhere to self-health management procedures for an additional seven days before competing on Sunday.
Being one of only two marathons in Taiwan to get World Athletics Road Race certification the full marathon had the 12 international athletes among its 8 000 competitors while the half marathon featured another 18 000 runners. There were 934 foreign people living in Taiwan from 59 different countries among the 26 000 contestants.
What was different in this last edition of this marathon from the previous ones? Ocacnews briefly reports that “a total of seven runners were sent to hospitals after suffering different levels of physical discomfort during Sunday’s race. Two suffered from chest pains and asthma while another five experienced cardiac arrest but they recovered after being treated.
All seven of the runners who faced health issues were under observation in local hospitals according to Taipei City’s Department of Sports.”[1]
But another media portal Taiwan English News gave a much more detailed report of this tragedy. The article entitled “5 athletes collapse during Taipei Marathon: 3 required resuscitations after losing vital signs”[2]reports in detail how all this happened.
It stated that five athletes collapsed during the event and were rushed to hospital at least three having lost vital signs requiring Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
“According to reports a 50-year-old female collapsed unconscious on Renai Road Section 2 at 7:28 am and was rushed to National Taiwan University Hospital.”
“At 7:43 am a 41-year-old man collapsed and was also rushed to NTUH.”
“Taipei City Fire Department said that at around 8:10 am a male participant aged around 30 collapsed at the intersection of Zhongshan North Road and Nong’an Street. The runner lost signs of life but vital signs were restored after CPR as he was rushed to Mackay Memorial Hospital.”
“Twenty minutes later another participant collapsed and lost vital signs in front of the Yuanshan Police Station. The man was rushed to Shin Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital.”
“A fifth runner collapsed at the intersection of Nanjing East Road and Gaungfu North Road at around 9:00 am. The 20-year-old man also lost vital signs and was resuscitated before being rushed to Cathay General Hospital.”
By 10:30 am a total of five athletes had collapsed unconscious during the race. Thankfully all five gained consciousness while under observation in hospital.
Apart from these tragic incidents what was the other factor which was different in this event? The other factor was that for the first time in its history the event required participants to show proof of Covid-19 vaccination or recovery from Covid-19 or a negative PCR test/rapid antigen test certificate. Were all these athletes who collapsed vaccinated? Doesn’t their collapse and the fact that they were done CPR show that they had a cardiac arrest? Why aren’t any media portals giving this important information?
How ironic is it that this marathon’s theme was that of “The Day we Reborn” when these athletes almost lost lives their lives and truly were reborn again!
Also in the Brooklyn half marathon of this year an unprecedented number of 16 athletes collapsed while another athlete the 32-year-old Reichman collapsed and died as soon as he crossed the finish line. The media portal Elamerican confirms that they were all vaccinated.[3]The New York Post reportedthat collapsed “after suffering from possible cardiac arrest according to event organization New York Road Runners club and the NYPD.”[4]However according to the Elamerican the absolute fact that all the participants declared they had been vaccinated for Covid-19 is irrelevant because “Saturday’s running conditions were unusually hot and humid”.
How many athletes collapsed in marathons which happened in hot and humid conditions pre-vaccination? Did we ever hear of them if any? The media will never blame the vaccines.
[1]https://ocacnews.net/article/298514
[2]https://taiwanenglishnews.com/5-athletes-collapse-during-taipei-marathon-3-required-resuscitation-after-losing-vital-signs/
[3]https://elamerican.com/all-16-runners-who-collapsed-and-runner-who-died-at-brooklyn-half-marathon-said-they-were-vaccinated/
[4]https://nypost.com/2022/05/22/runner-who-died-during-brooklyn-marathon-was-david-reichman/?utm_medium=SocialFlow&utm_source=NYPTwitter&utm_campaign=SocialFlow