Being healthy and fit enough to compete in the Olympics doesn't necessarily guarantee
a long life. The following athletes have all passed away at a young age, for reasons ranging
from weirdly mundane to outright terrifying. Keep watching for the Olympians who died too
soon.
Florence Griffith Joyner was one of the most dominant sprinters in history, and her legacy
has remained pretty well cast in stone. In June 2021, when Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce of
Jamaica ran the fastest time in women's 100 meters in 33 years, it was the fourth-best
performance in history. The three best were all Flo-Jo's. She was so dominant that even
though she last competed in the 1988 Seoul Olympics, she still holds the women's world
records for both the 100 and 200 meters.
Joyner's combination of sheer talent with fashionable outfits and long, colorful fingernails
made her a major celebrity in more ways than one. In purely Olympic terms, the 1988 Games
were her undeniable high point. That was when she set both of her still-standing world records
and also competed in the 100- and 400-meter relay races, which led to a haul of three
gold medals and one silver. Soon after, she retired from the track.
Sadly, Joyner's life was cut short in 1998, when an epileptic seizure caused her to suffocate
in her sleep. She was only 38. Her early death and sheer dominance on the track led to murmurs
about doping, but she passed every test that she took, and her autopsy didn't find any
signs of performance-enhancing drugs.
According to the Olympics' official website,
"Drazen Petrovic is considered the greatest player ever produced in Yugoslavia, and probably
in Europe."
So obviously, Petrovic was kind of a big deal. He was one of the few European players in
the NBA in his heyday. The towering shooting guard and his teammates earned Yugoslavia
a bronze medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and a silver in Seoul in 1988. In the 1992
Barcelona Olympics, he represented the freshly independent Croatia and might very well have
added gold to his medal haul if it weren't for the fact that he had to play the unbeatable
American "Dream Team." When you're going up against the likes of Michael Jordan, Magic
Johnson, Larry Bird, and Scottie Pippen, settling for silver is pretty good.
Petrovic's career and life were sadly cut short in 1993. The car he was traveling in
crashed into a truck near Frankfurt, Germany, and all three people inside died. Petrovic
was only 28. He died in his prime and likely wasn't able to accomplish everything he was
capable of, but he nonetheless remains a legend in his home country. Croatia has even erected
a statue in his honor and named a square and basketball arena after him.
In her Olympic career, American volleyball legend Flo Hyman won a silver medal at the
1984 Summer Games. But while she was still active in her playing days, tragedy struck.
In 1986, the 31-year-old Hyman was sitting on the bench during a match in Japan, when
she suddenly fell and was rushed to the hospital. The gravity of the situation wasn't apparent
at first. As Hyman's friend, sportscaster Marty Kuehnert, recalled to the Los Angeles
Times,
"It was the third set, and Flo had just come off the court. She was sitting in the middle
of the bench, cheering for her team, and she just keeled over. Flo had fainted in the past.
[Her teammate Rita Crockett said] that Flo had just fainted, so she thought it was OK
to continue the match."
But this, it turned out, was more than fainting. Hyman's heart had failed, and she died in
the hospital. It later came to light that she had Marfan Syndrome, which can put serious
strain on the heart and arteries. Hyman's legacy lives on in the form of the Flo Hyman
Award, which is given to the female volleyball player who "'embodies the spirit and dignity”
of Hyman. And the annual National Girls and Women in Sports Day got its start in 1987,
partly as a way to honor Hyman.
"I want volleyball to develop in the United States in such a way that when you're in kindergarten,
you can play volleyball."
March 9, 2015, was a dark day for French sports. That was when three of the country's top athletes
— 25-year-old swimmer Camille Muffat, 28-year-old boxer Alexis Vastine, and 57-year-old sailor
Florence Artraud — died in a helicopter crash that took the lives of a total of 10
people. Both Muffat and Vastine were Olympians. The former had competed in the 2008 Beijing
Olympics and the 2012 games in London, in which she won the 400-meter freestyle, took
silver in the 200-meter freestyle, and completed her collection with a bronze in the 4-by-200-meter
freestyle relay. Vastine's Olympic success came in Beijing, where he won a bronze medal
as a light welterweight.
The crash that took their lives happened in a distant part of Argentina, where the athletes
were shooting a reality survival show that was, ironically enough, called Dropped. The
premise of the show was to see how the sports stars would survive in the wilderness. As
one chopper was circling around another one, a pilot error caused their rotors to come
in contact. The ensuing disaster sent both helicopters crashing to the ground, in full
sight of the rest of the show's horrified stars.
Steve Prefontaine was arguably the greatest American runner of the early 70s. A slim small-town
boy who turned to running as a last-ditch effort to keep on the straight and narrow,
he proved to be a natural, running all the way to the 1972 Munich Olympics.
Prefontaine was no slouch. At one point he held the American records at 2,000, 3,000,
5,000, and 10,0000 meters, as well as 2, 3, and 6 miles. Unfortunately, being the best
in his country wasn't enough to make him the best in the world. He ended up placing fourth
at the Olympics' 5,000-meter race, burning himself out early with the bronze medalist
edging past him just before the finish line.
"He would rather have gone for the gold and tried for that then get a sure bronze, and
that just really typified the man."
Despite that disappointment, Prefontaine was a dedicated and talented athlete, and there's
no telling what he would've accomplished if his life hadn't ended so prematurely. In 1975,
he was driving his convertible after a party with fellow athletes when the car flipped
after hitting a curb and he was stuck underneath. Prefontaine, who had been intoxicated, died
on the scene. He was only 24. His legacy has lived on in, among other ways, the multiple
films made about his life.
There's no telling what Dutch speed skater Lara Van Ruijven could have achieved had she
not died in 2020. She took part in both the Sochi Olympics in 2014 and the PyeongChang
Games in 2018. In the latter, her 3,000-meter relay team took home bronze. Before, during,
and after her Olympic glory, Vain Ruijven raked in both team and individual wins, and
at the time of her death, she was the 500-meter individual speed skating world champion.
On June 25, 2020, Van Ruijven's health took a quick and shocking turn for the worse. She
left her training to go to a hospital, where she soon fell into critical condition and
had to be put in a medically induced coma. Multiple surgeries couldn't save her life,
and she died of "complications from an autoimmune reaction" on July 10. She was only 27 years
old. The news of Van Ruijven's death sent shockwaves throughout the sports world and
the Dutch skating community in particular. As Dutch Skating Federation director Herman
de Haan said,
"It's incomprehensible that she has been taken from us while in the prime of her life."
Andrew "Bart" Simpson was a successful British sailor who won gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics
along with his good friend Iain Percy. They didn't quite repeat the trick at their home
Olympics during London 2012, though they did manage to snag the silver that time. Sadly,
only one year later, Simpson's life came to a too-soon end. On May 9 of that year, the
36-year-old sailor was part of the 11-man crew of a 72-foot catamaran that was training
in the San Francisco Bay when it suddenly capsized and broke apart. Most of the crew
got away safely, but Simpson remained under the pieces. He was reportedly underwater for
up to 15 minutes and couldn't be recovered until he'd already perished. As Percy remembered
him,
"I lost my closest friend of over 25 years, the friendliest and kindest man I have ever
met."
It was eventually determined that the incident was accidental. Simpson reportedly received
several blows to his head during the incident, which was the official cause of death along
with drowning, a tragedy that left all who knew him stunned.
"This is a shocking experience to- to go through."
Lillian Board was one of the greatest British runners of her era. She won only one Olympic
medal, a silver in the 400 meters at the 1968 Mexico City Games. But she was a capable competitor
at pretty much any distance, from 100 meters to 1,500 meters. She also set a number of
world records as part of her country's relay teams.
Tragically, Board's athletic career was cut short when she started experiencing severe
stomach pains, which turned out to be a particularly aggressive form of bowel cancer. After several
operations to deal with her intestinal issues, she died in 1970 after what her doctor described
as "a terrible series of complications." She was only 22 years old.
Board's death was a huge blow to the entire nation, where she was revered. She was known
as the "Golden Girl of British athletics," and her accomplishments were so highly esteemed
that shortly before her death, she was awarded with a Member of the Order of the British
Empire distinction.
When Matti Nykanen first competed in the Olympics, he made it unmistakably clear that he was
a peerless athlete. At the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Games, the Finnish ski jumper won the gold
at the large hill by the largest margin in Olympic history, and he went on to win another
medal in the normal hill event, a silver this time.
That was the last time that Nykanen would deign to take home any Olympic medals that
weren't gold. At the Calgary Olympics in 1988, he won no less than three of the brightest
medals.
Nykanen's achievements made him one of the greatest ski jumpers in history, if not the
greatest. Unfortunately, the rest of his life didn't quite match up to his athletic accomplishments.
His alcohol abuse, five marriages, two stints in prison for assault with a knife, and tabloid-friendly
singing and even stripping endeavors made sure that all eyes were on him, often for
all the wrong reasons. His turbulent life came to an all-too-early end in 2019, when
the 55-year-old suddenly died of an inflammation of the pancreas.
Finnish cross-country skier Mika Myllylä was one of the best winter athletes of his
day, as his six Olympic medals, including a gold from Nagano in 1998, readily demonstrate.
However, he was knocked off his pedestal in 2001 when a doping scandal landed him and
five other members of his team a two-year competition ban.
Myllylä's career never recovered, and his unsuccessful attempt at a comeback led to
a difficult transition to normal life, pockmarked with alcohol abuse and brushes with the law.
In 2011, he was found dead in his home at just 41 years old. As the Finnish police said
in a statement,
"We do not believe that the death is linked to a crime. The cause of death will be investigated."
Myllylä's passing isn't quite the end of this strange story. His true cause of death
was ultimately not released, which ended up causing a minor scandal. The case prompted
a large amount of curiosity within the police. In 2014, no less than 72 people, all of them
affiliated with law enforcement, were convicted for looking into the particulars of the skier's
death without a justifiable cause.
If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues, help is available. Visit
the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's
National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).