Dartmouth Swimmer Dies Trying to Do Laps Without Breathing

Tate Ramsden went into distress while still underwater
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 28, 2015 5:25 PM CST
Dartmouth Swimmer Dies Trying to Do Laps Without Breathing
Stock image.   (Shutterstock)

Tate Ramsden swam for Dartmouth College as a freshman and sophomore, but the Tennessee 21-year-old, who was planning to graduate from Dartmouth in 2017, died Saturday at a Sarasota, Fla., YMCA pool while visiting the city with his family over the holiday weekend. Ramsden was swimming there with his sister, uncle, and cousin on the day after Christmas when his sister and cousin noticed he was underwater and not moving, the AP reports. Lifeguards got him out of the pool, but water and blood came out of his nose and mouth as they and other emergency medical personnel attempted to revive him, and he ultimately could not be resuscitated. He was pronounced dead at the pool.

His cause of death is pending an autopsy, but an officer writes in a sheriff's office report released Monday, "Tate had been swimming laps in the pool for some time and I was told he had swam approximately 4,000 yards before practicing his underwater swimming techniques. It is believed he was likely attempting to complete a '100' which is four laps across the pool without surfacing for air." It was apparently during those four laps underwater that Ramsden went into distress. The head coach at the Nashville Aquatic Club, where Ramsden swam for many years, calls him "an accomplished swimmer and a wonderful teammate." Fox 13 reports that Ramsden was on Dartmouth's swimming and diving teams and had been the head of his high school swim team in Nashville. (More accidental death stories.)

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