Historical Perspectives on Sudden Deaths in Young Athletes With Evolution over 35 Years

Sudden death in young competitive athletes has become a highly visible and substantial issue within cardiovascular medicine of interest both to the general public and to the practicing community. At this time, it is instructive to revisit the evolution of this clinical problem over the past 35 years starting with introduction into the public and medical consciousness by the unexpected sudden deaths of 2 college basketball players within 8 weeks of each other in 1976, 1 with Marfan syndrome and the other with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Subsequently, over the next years, a number of elite athletes died suddenly, raising public visibility and awareness of these tragic events: Len Bias, "Pistol" Pete Maravich, Hank Gathers, Reggie Lewis, Kori Stringer, Jason Collier, and Thomas Herrion. Intense interest in these and many other athlete deaths has led to a considerable understanding regarding the demographics, incidence, and causes of these deaths, which include a variety of genetic and/or congenital cardiovascular diseases (most commonly hypertrophic cardiomyopathy), blunt trauma, commotio cordis, and sickle cell trait. Ultimately, initiatives emerged creating consensus guidelines for disqualification versus eligibility decisions, and preparticipation screening to detect unsuspected cardiac abnormalities. This journey of now >3 decades has generated voluminous data and even controversy, but continues to hold great interest in clinical scientists, medical practitioners, and the general public.