While top-level professional sports stars can seem superhuman, sometimes all it takes
to bring them down to our level is a simple mistake or plain bad luck. Let's take a look
at athletes who died before our very eyes and reminded us that sports heroes are human too.
Until 1998's Daytona 500, infamous racer Dale Earnhardt Sr. had yet to
win at the legendary track. He had been 0-19 in the race, the sport's biggest spectacle.
But at 46 years old, the iconic driver finally ended the race as the victor. ESPN wrote of him:
"Dale Earnhardt was first — at last."
Three years later, tragedy struck at that same track.
Earnhardt was making a signature aggressive move on the final curve,
battling through heavy traffic and traveling over 180 miles per hour. Suddenly,
he lost control and smashed into the wall. He sustained multiple severe injuries, and doctors
pronounced him dead that evening. It appeared blunt force trauma had killed him instantly.
"Uh, but, after the accident in turn four at the end of the Daytona 500, um,
we've lost Dale Earnhardt."
NASCAR's biggest star died in front of nearly 200,000 screaming fans. He was not wearing a full
face mask during the crash, and his seat belt also failed, according to The New York Times.
The full autopsy later confirmed he died of a skull fracture. He was 49.
If people didn't realize there's a big difference between pro wrestling being
"fake" and being safe, they found out in 1999 when WWE star Owen Hart died in front of
16,000 fans in Kansas City, Missouri. The accident was not caught on the pay-per-view broadcast,
but everyone in Kemper Arena witnessed Hart's passing.
On a 2021 episode of "Lucha Libre Online", referee Jimmy Korderas remembered standing ringside,
cleaning up after a messy hardcore match, when he felt some falling debris graze his back.
He reflexively ducked when he heard screaming — which he later surmised
was Hart telling another wrestler to get out of the way. Korderas recalled:
"When I turned around, he was there, lying on his back on the corner of the ring. I called him a few
times and got no response. That's where I panicked and started screaming for help from anybody."
Owen Hart, aka "Blue Blazer," was the little brother of the well-known Bret "The Hitman" Hart.
In a stunt he had performed many times, the younger Hart was being lowered from
the arena ceiling into the ring on an allegedly non-standard wire. The wire somehow failed and
dropped him 80 feet to his death. He was only 33 years old, and left behind a wife and two
children. His widow, Martha Hart, reached a settlement of $18 million with the WWE.
She maintains that the incident was the company's fault, telling CBS Sports:
"The stunt itself was so negligent."
During the first game of the 1990 WCC basketball conference tournament,
Loyola Marymount's Hank Gathers scored 28 points in his team's blowout victory.
Gathers had led the country in scoring and rebounding that season.
Future NBA coach and college rival Erik Spoelstra told the Los Angeles Times:
"He was an unbelievable physical specimen."
Gathers also had a heart condition,
but he nonetheless brimmed with confidence. He quipped, according to ESPN:
"I'm the most doctor-tested man alive. I feel great. I'm in the best shape of my
life. My mom's out here, and I'm looking forward to some good home cooking."
Gathers, however, was also weaning off his heart meds which he felt made him sluggish.
Days later on March 4, 1990, Loyola was facing Portland.
Gathers got loose on the wing and caught a long lob for a thunderous jam.
Thousands of fans roared. But as the forward slapped fives and ran back on defense,
the six-foot-seven, 220-pound star suddenly collapsed. Gathers tried to get up, but again
collapsed and lost consciousness. Spoelstra would remark to the Los Angeles Times years later:
"The absolute silence in the gym after he fell, it's something I'll never forget."
Gathers was later pronounced dead at a local hospital.
An autopsy found no illicit drugs in his system, according to The New York Times.
However, also absent were the prescribed medications for his chronic heart condition.
Maxim Dadashev had never lost a professional boxing match on the night he died.
The Russian prospect had captured a silver medal at the World Junior Championships in 2008. He
then turned pro in 2016, fighting at 140 pounds, and won 13 consecutive fights — 11 by knockout.
When he stepped into the ring in 2019, even though he was facing a brutally heavy-handed
whirlwind named Subriel Matías, he had every reason to be confident. However,
over the course of nearly a dozen rounds, Matías' relentless power wore Dadashev down.
As ESPN recounted, Dadashev's cornerman begged him to let him call it off after the 11th round,
and the fighter collapsed as he was leaving the ring. He was transported to a hospital
for brain injuries, and less than a week later, the fighter sadly died. He was only 28. His wife,
Elizaveta Apushkina, who lives in Russia with their young son, told The New York Times:
"He was a very kind person who fought until the very end.
Our son will continue to be raised to be a great man like his father."
Thankfully, Russian boxing pledged to help Max's widow. Umar Kremlev,
the secretary-general of the Russian Boxing Federation, said in a statement:
"He was our young prospect. We will fully support his family, including financially."
US women's volleyball was in sorry shape in the 1970s. The American team failed to even
qualify for the 1972 Olympic games. But when Flo Hyman joined the team in 1974,
that all changed. According to former national team coach Pat Zartman,
Flo took the USA team, quote, "from recreational into an internationally competitive program." The
6'5" Hyman went straight from high school to world-class player, and, by 1980,
the US women's team was considered the Olympic favorite. However, Hyman's dreams were dashed when
the US boycotted that year's games in Moscow, over Cold War tensions with the Soviet Union.
Undaunted, Hyman stuck with the sport. As the Los Angeles Times recounted, Flo was the oldest
female player in 1984's Games but still led her team to a silver medal. Two years later,
Hyman started playing for a Japanese women's league. During the third game of a match in 1986,
she collapsed as she sat on the bench. Team director Yashurio Doi told the AP:
"There wasn't anything strange about her health before the match.
She didn't have any health problems."
However, Hyman's family didn't buy the initial cause of death and an autopsy
later revealed she had an undiagnosed case of a rare disorder called Marfan Syndrome.
This likely contributed to her great height, but also weakened her heart. Hyman was 31 years old.
Swimmer Fran Crippen wasn't a superstar like Michael Phelps, but he may very
well have been on his way to Olympic glory when he died in an open water competition.
The 11-time All-American medaled at numerous international indoor swimming competitions,
but in 2006 made the transition to open water competitions to pursue his Olympic
aspirations. Crippen just narrowly missed the cut to represent Team USA in 2008, then returned home
to Pennsylvania to pursue coaching. It was there he reconnected with his own childhood swim coach
and re-dedicated to the sport, becoming a six-time national outdoor champion.
But Crippen wanted another crack at Olympic gold too,
which meant staying active. In October of 2010, this Aquaman was competing in Abu Dhabi,
well known for its blazing temperatures and soupy waters. Crippen told a friend earlier
in the day the air was 100 degrees and the water a swampy 87, according to ABC News.
Like many swimmers, Crippen was also known to consume 10-15 packs of caffeinated energy
gel during his races — the equivalent of five cups of coffee. Unfortunately, it may have been
a factor in the tragedy to come. It's unclear why Crippen sank to the seafloor, only to be pulled
out by rescue divers, but experts believe it was either cardiac arrhythmia or simply drowning
after passing out. Dr. Mark Morocco of the UCLA School of Medicine told ABC News:
"Both were directly related to overexertion,
which is a terrible garbage-can diagnosis and does not speak to what happened."
Crippen was 26 years old.
A shocking accident in 2018 took the life of one of the greatest jockeys to ever saddle up.
Jose Flores ran nearly 30,000 races in his career, according to CBS Sports. He won over 4,000
first-place finishes and racked up $64 million, the most in the history of his home track.
Five years after this legend was inducted into the Parx hall of fame, he mounted up at his Bensalem,
Pennsylvania home field, as he'd done so many times before. There is no video of the incident
but witnesses say Flores' horse fell forward, throwing the rider headfirst into the ground
and causing "massive head trauma." Two other riders went down in the chaos,
but both walked away with only minor injuries.
Flores held on for three days in the hospital,
but the decision was made to take him off life support. Scott Lake,
a long-time trainer at Park and friend of Flores since 1991 told the Philadelphia Inquirer:
"It's unbelievable, just sickening. He was just tremendous, a nice guy, always a professional."
Fellow jockey Kendrick Carmouche recalled a tragically prophetic conversation he had
with Flores just before his friend's death, the doomed rider remarking:
"You know, I found a good wife. I just hope I don't get hurt."
Flores was 58 years old and left behind his spouse Joanne,
as well as their 7-year-old son Julian — plus two children from a previous relationship.
If NASCAR is the Budweiser of racing, Formula One is the Champagne — as in actual Champagne,
from the Champagne region of France. But it turns out,
bougie racing isn't any less dangerous than its more working-class American cousin.
The Brazilian speedster Ayrton Senna has been described by his luxury auto
brand McLaren as, quote, "arguably the greatest F1 driver of them all."
In his tragically shortened career that spanned 1984 to 1994, he won three World Championships
and 41 races out of 161 overall — a staggering record in a highly competitive sport.
On May 1, 1994, Senna was competing on live television for another world championship
when his car took a sudden turn off the track at Imola Circuit in Bologna, Italy,
and smashed into the crash barriers. Medics found that a piece of, quote,
"debris had pierced his helmet, causing multiple fractures at the base of his skull,"
according to VICE. Ayrton was so famous, and so mourned, the outlet wrote:
"His state funeral was broadcast live on television in Brazil,
while the government declared three days of national mourning."
Ayrton is the only F1 racer to die at a Grand Prix, and his death at age 34 began a lengthy
search to determine who was responsible. Manslaughter charges were eventually brought
against three event organizers and Ayrton's own team boss, though the cases languished in
Italian courts. Ultimately, the truth of what actually caused the crash may never be known.
Professional cycling can be extremely dangerous. Riders often reach speeds of 37 miles per hour
under their own power, with nothing more than their helmets and thin
neoprene suits to protect from brutal crashes involving multiple athletes.
In tour cycling, the descent from exhausting mountain climbs is the most dangerous leg.
On the one hand, it's a brief reprieve from the painful exertion of hill climbing.
On the other hand, riders can reach speeds of well over 60 MPH, and one mistake is all it takes.
That's what took the life of Belgian cyclist Wouter Weylandt in 2011,
when he was making his descent in the Giro d'Italia from the Passo del Bocco.
The broadcast didn't catch his fall but a helicopter camera discovered his body lying
motionless on the cement in a pool of blood. Of course, the broadcast quickly cut away.
Medics arrived promptly, but Weylandt was beyond help. Doctor Giovanni Tredici told ESPN:
"He was unconscious with a fracture of the skull base
and facial damage. After 40 minutes of cardiac massage,
we had to suspend the resuscitation because there was nothing more we could do."
Weylandt's death was the first at this Italian race in 25 years,
and the first at any of the major "showcase tours" in 16 years.
Tragically, his girlfriend was pregnant at the time. He was only 26 years old.
One of the all time most famous deaths in the boxing ring was that of Duk-koo Kim
at the hands of the legendarily heavy-handed Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini.
"Here at Caesars Palace is Ray 'Boom Boom' Mancini"
Ray Mancini took his nickname from his father, also a decorated fighter,
during World War II. Mancini ended his career on four straight losses, but before that,
had a stellar 29-1 record, with 23 of those wins coming by vicious knockout.
The granite-fisted lightweight won a world title in 1980, which made him a star in the sport.
As NPR recounted, Mancini took on Duk-koo Kim in his second title defense in 1982.
Mancini floored the South Korean fighter in the 14th round, and Kim died four days later
at only 27. The incident badly shook Mancini and changed boxing forever. He told the outlet:
"It haunted me, why was it [Kim] and not me?
He was giving as good as he was getting. And who's to say it wouldn't be me next time?"
Only weeks later, The World Boxing Council voted to change their title fights from 15
rounds to 12 rounds, according to The Washington Post. The WBC said the move would, quote, "prevent
boxers from suffering irreparable injuries." While the change did not end ring deaths,
the shorter format was adopted by all other major boxing organizations.
Kim's death has saved countless fighters from needless late-round beatings.
Sometimes, it isn't a human mistake that results in an athlete's untimely death;
sometimes things just happen inexplicably.
In 2008 a freak crash at the Lucas Oil NHRA SuperNational drag racing
event took the life of veteran driver Scott Kalitta. The two-time champion driver was
the son of one of the founding fathers of the sport, according to ESPN — as well as
one of the most "feared" racers in the game. Fellow driver Bob Frey admitted:
"If I'm in Top Fuel,
the one thing I don't want to see is that Kalitta car pulling up in that other lane."
A lot changed between Kalitta's father's DIY era and his own.
The younger racer was driving, quote, "one of the safest and technologically advanced racing
machines in professional motorsports," when something went tragically wrong. According to
the police report, a catastrophic mechanical failure caused a sudden fiery explosion,
propelling the racer past the finish line at over 300 miles per hour.
Kalitta's car began coming apart and his parachute deployed but still careened into a rough "run-off"
area at over 125 miles per hour. Scott Kalitta was 46 years old and left behind a wife and two sons.