A runner died in the New York City Marathon.
asserted
runner → die → Marathon
Have the risks changed as more people race?
asserted
people → change → ?
Rachel Apa, 24, died after collapsing just over 3 km from the finish line
She was just a few kilometres from the finish line.
asserted
She → die → line
A record-breaking 61,146 runners completed the New York City Marathon on Sunday.
asserted
runners → break → Sunday
But Rachel Apa, despite being in what her father describes as perfect health, wasn't one of them.
asserted
father → describe → them
The 24-year-old athlete collapsed near mile 24, or about 38.6 kilometres into the 42.2-kilometre race.
asserted
athlete → collapse → race
Despite the life-saving efforts of bystanders, paramedics and then hospital doctors, she was pronounced dead later that night, her grieving parents told the New York Times.
asserted
parents → save → Times
"It's unfathomable," her father Steve Apa, who could not be reached by CBC News, told the news outlet.
uncertain
who → reach → outlet
Every year, more and more people vie for the chance to lace up their sneakers and push themselves 42.2 kilometres to cross that finish line.
asserted
people → vie → line
But every year, young and seemingly healthy people also die trying — typically of heart failure or cardiac arrest.
asserted
people → die → failure
All told, including Rachel Apa, at least six runners have died racing in marathons and half-marathons around the world in the past six months alone.
asserted
runners → tell → months
Still, experts say the incidence rate is very low, given that millions of people run them every year.
asserted
millions → say → them
Marathons aren't any riskier than they were 20 years ago, but they are far more popular, explained Jack Goodman, a professor emeritus in kinesiology at the University of Toronto, and adjunct scientist of cardiovascular research at Toronto's University Health Network.
asserted
Goodman → explain → Network
"When the population is so large, there are bound to be more cases, rare as they are," Goodman told CBC News.
asserted
Goodman → be → News
Any time you have thousands of people in the same space, based on probabilities, one of them will have a cardiac event, Dr. Christopher Labos, a cardiologist and epidemiologist in Montreal, told CBC News.
asserted
Labos → have → News
"You just hear about it more in the news because it's so shocking when something unexpected like this happens."
asserted
something → hear → this
Rachel Apa is pictured in the 2023 field hockey roster on the athletics website for Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa. (Bucknellbison.com)
asserted
Apa → picture → Lewisburg
Risk of dying has decreased: study
asserted
Risk → die → ?
Anyone who has tried to register for a marathon in the last few years can tell you how popular they've become.
asserted
they → try → you
A record 1.3 million people have already applied to run the 2027 London Marathon.
asserted
people → apply → Marathon
So many people have tried to register for the Boston Marathon in recent years that they've tightened their qualifying times.
asserted
they → try → times
In the U.S. alone, more than 29 million people completed marathons and half-marathons in between 2010 and 2023, notes a 2025 study published the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
asserted
study → complete → Association
That's triple the number compared to a decade earlier, the authors add.
asserted
authors → compare → ?
70-year-old Ottawa woman sets new marathon world record
More kids are running marathons.
asserted
kids → set → marathons
A teen's death reignites a debate about the risks
Overall, the risk of risk of death is about one in 150,000 runners, notes a 2019 global review in the BMJ medical journal.
asserted
review → reignite → journal
Typically, the risk is much higher for men, the cause is often coronary artery disease and the deaths most often occur in the last quarter of the race, the study says.
asserted
study → occur → race
"There are infrequent deaths, which are often reported widely, and may create unnecessary alarm about the potential risks," the authors wrote.
uncertain
authors → be → risks
The 2025 JAMA study points out that the risk of dying from a cardiac event during long-distance running races in the U.S. has actually gone down by about 50 per cent in recent years — likely due to more effective emergency planning, including access to defibrillators.
asserted
risk → point → defibrillators
But the study also noted a small uptick in non-fatal cardiac events since 2020, which the authors hypothesized could be due to less access to health care during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to reduced detection of cardiovascular disease.
uncertain
authors → note → disease
Runners make their way through Queens during the New York City Marathon Sunday.
asserted
Runners → make → Marathon
Usually a pre-existing cause, expert says
Most often, in the case of death, there's underlying coronary disease the runner didn't know about and never caused them a problem until the race, said Goodman.
asserted
Goodman → say → race
"Sudden cardiac death is, unfortunately, not a terribly uncommon first symptom of heart disease," he said.
asserted
he → say → disease
Just last month, 24-year-old Treyton Lara collapsed at mile 20 of the Portland Marathon and died.
asserted
Lara → collapse → Marathon
He'd experienced a sudden cardiac arrest, his family said.
asserted
family → experience → arrest
In January, Julien Autissier, 33, collapsed around the 19-mile mark of the Miami marathon and died in the hospital.
asserted
Autissier → collapse → hospital
Doctors also suspected sudden cardiac arrest, according to the Miami New Times.
uncertain
Doctors → suspect → Times
Roland Liinar, 25, died last May after collapsing in the Rimi Riga Marathon in Latvia.
uncertain
Liinar → die → Latvia
The same month, two other runners died after collapsing while competing in half-marathons in New York and the U.K.
Still, from a public health perspective, the problem most people have is moving too little, not moving too much, said Lagos, the cardiologist and epidemiologist.
asserted
Lagos → die → perspective
And if you're a young healthy person who trained properly for a marathon, a cardiac event is "almost certainly not going to happen in your case."
asserted
event → train → case
Runners cross the finish line in Central Park on Sunday.
asserted
Runners → cross → Sunday
…and 12 more, not listed.
The Aporia
