Olympic swimmers can look like they’re glide through the water with the greatest of ease. So, it can be all that more stunning when one collapses suddenly after a race.
That’s what happened to Tamara Potocka from Slovakia after she had just finished swimming in the third heat of the women’s 200 meter individual medley at the Paris Olympics. This was the 21-year-old’s first ever Olympic Games, and the 200m IM was the only event that she was swimming. After she had finished seventh in the heat, Potocka had gotten out of the pool at La Defense only to fall down at the side of the pool. Medical personnel quickly attended to her, fitted her with a neck brace and an oxygen mask, placed her on a stretcher and carried her from the pool deck.
Now, when someone collapses after swimming, lots of things are possible. Swimming is a physically intense activity and can put a lot of strain on the body. There are neurological reasons why someone might fall over, ranging from a stroke to a seizure to a migraine headache. There are also cardiovascular ones where the brain is not getting enough blood flow, which can occur with a heart attack, orthostatic hypotension or other conditions. There are metabolic reasons such as a drop in blood sugar. Then there is the whole not-getting-enough-oxygen thing when something impedes your ability to breathe in enough air or exchange enough oxygen and carbon dioxide in the lungs.
It turns out Potocka had suffered an asthma attack. This wasn’t completely out of the blue as she already had a documented history of asthma. If you’ve got asthma, you can suffer periodic attacks where the airways in your lungs get inflamed and tighten. They may also produce extra amounts of mucus, all of which can make it a little or a lot harder to breathe, depending on the severity of the attach. And being able to breathe is kind of important since that’s how you get oxygen into your bloodstream and expel carbon dioxide.
While a mild asthma attack can be cumbersome, a severe one can be a life-threatening medical emergency. Typically, you’ll need oxygen and medications to re-expand your airways and reduce the inflammation and swelling. That’s why any0ne with a history of more than mild asthma attacks will usually carry around medications just in case.
It’s not completely clear what triggered Potocka asthma attack. Common triggers include allergic ones such as molds, pollens and pet dander and non-allergic ones such as exercise, stress, illness and certain weather conditions as described on the Cleveland Clinic website. Now, there didn’t seem to be dogs and cats running around the pool, Potocka was exercising and presumably competing in the Olympics was kind of stressful. But one doesn’t always know what specifically triggered a given asthma attack.
Fortunately, Potocka was able to return to the Olympic Village later that afternoon following oxygen therapy and assessment at a local hospital. It’s not the greatest ending for Potocka’s competition as her time of 2:14:20 was not fast enough for her to continue on to the semifinals of the event. But she did make it to and swim in the Olympics, which is more than over 99% of the people in the world can say.
