Stanford swimmer still under evaluation after postrace collapse |
FILE: A general overall aerial view of the Avery Aquatic Center on the Stanford University campus on Dec. 11, 2024, in Stanford, Calif.
Two days after a Stanford women’s swimmer collapsed following a race, the school refuses to give any update on her status.
On Wednesday, Stanford sophomore Addison Sauickie competed in the second preliminary heat for the 500-yard freestyle, which requires swimmers to do 10 laps in the pool, at the ACC Swimming & Diving Championships in Atlanta. As swimming news outlet SwimSwam first reported on Wednesday, Sauickie seemed to momentarily pause in the pool during her eighth lap and then needed help out of the water after she completed the full race.
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SFGATE reviewed the broadcast footage from the ACC Network livestream, as well as posted race records. Sauickie started off her race strong, with her first seven laps all coming in under 30 seconds. But on the eighth lap, Sauickie visibly stopped swimming and floated in the pool for two seconds. She got back to swimming, finishing that lap and the rest of the race with noticeably slower lap times. At the conclusion of the race, the other competitors pull themselves up and out of the pool while the swimmers for the next heat prepare to go.
But Sauickie stays in the water for around 30 extra seconds, only leaving the pool when two people come to the edge and help pull her out of the water. She barely takes one step onto the pool deck before she collapses to the floor momentarily. She’s helped into a chair on the pool deck and receives medical attention, even as the next race begins. She was able to walk off with a coach after around five minutes.
Sauickie, who is listed as a freestyle and butterfly swimmer for Stanford, was then scratched from the 200-yard freestyle preliminaries on Thursday and from the 200-yard butterfly preliminaries on Friday. (She is still listed on the preliminary sheet for Saturday’s 100-yard freestyle event as of noon on Friday.) SFGATE reached out to Stanford on Friday, asking for an update on Sauickie’s status, but the school has not responded. The school also did not provide a statement to SwimSwam after the outlet’s initial Wednesday report.
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