In sports, determined athletes train and pain their bodies, forsaking the comforts of life for athletic prowess. Athletes strive for goals that many people couldn't dream of. Sadly, calamity strikes the hardest in triumphant moments. These athletes died while playing the sports they loved.
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00:00In sports, determined athletes train and pain their bodies, forsaking the comforts of life
00:05for athletic prowess.
00:07They strive for goals that many people couldn't dream of.
00:10Sadly, calamity strikes the hardest in triumphant moments.
00:14These athletes died while playing the sports they loved.
00:17Dale Earnhardt Sr. was on the final lap of the Daytona 500 when he fatally crashed in
00:222001.
00:23Over the course of his career, the 49-year-old husband and father of four had won 76 races,
00:28seven Winston Cup championships, and widespread adoration.
00:32Dale Earnhardt was a man of extremes.
00:35Friend, foe.
00:37Every man, Superman.
00:40And he was a hero lost too soon.
00:42In his final race, Earnhardt helped his son Dale Jr. finish in second place.
00:46He blocked an advancing vehicle to ensure that Jr. and his other teammate Michael Waltrip
00:50clinched the top two spots.
00:52But the blocked car made contact, causing Earnhardt's vehicle to veer into a wall.
00:57Then another out-of-control car careened into Earnhardt's.
01:00Dale Jr. witnessed his father's fatal accident in his rearview mirror mere moments before
01:04he crossed the finish line.
01:06Sr. lost consciousness and never woke up, pronounced dead at the hospital.
01:11Volleyball fans worshipped Flo Hyman.
01:13Imposingly tall and strong, she would have thrived on any team.
01:16Her impact on American volleyball made her an icon.
01:19Before she came along in 1974, the U.S. women's team was in tatters.
01:23They tanked at the 1964 and 1968 Olympics, and didn't even qualify in 1972.
01:30With Hyman's help, the U.S. took fifth place in the 1978 World Championships and seemed
01:34like shoe-ins for gold in the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.
01:38It didn't end up happening when America boycotted those games due to Cold War tensions with
01:42the Soviet Union.
01:43But four years later in Los Angeles, Hyman led the women's team to a silver despite being
01:47the oldest player on the roster.
01:49As you grow older, some things you have to deal with, face, and come to terms with.
01:53It wasn't an easy thing.
01:54I think in some ways volleyball helped me a lot.
01:57In January 1986, Hyman was 31 and still going strong.
02:01She joined a Japanese team in an elite league and dominated.
02:04But during a game in Tokyo, she subbed out, sat down, and slid silently to the floor.
02:09Up to that point, she had looked and played well.
02:12Not a single doctor had spotted a problem throughout her career.
02:15But an autopsy revealed that she had Marfan syndrome, a hard-to-diagnose illness that
02:19damages the aorta.
02:21It turned out that her heart had a dime-sized defect that caused her aorta to rupture.
02:26When asked to comment on the passing of 26-year-old Fran Crippen, coach Bill Rose told the LA
02:32Times,
02:33"...I don't know of a swimmer that is any more popular with his fellow athletes."
02:36Crippen had a reputation for perseverance.
02:39When he fell short of his dream of swimming in the 2008 Olympics, he picked himself up
02:43and kept competing.
02:44His persistence paid off countless times in his life.
02:47He was an 11-time All-American and two-time ACC Swimmer of the Year for the University
02:52of Virginia.
02:53But in October 2010, his never-quit attitude may have killed him.
02:57At the FINA Open Water 10 Kilometer World Cup in Dubai, he raced in nearly 90-degree
03:02water on a 100-degree day.
03:04Multiple swimmers suffered heat exhaustion and had to be hospitalized.
03:08Toward the final stretch of the event, Crippen informed his coach he wasn't feeling well,
03:12but he pushed himself to continue.
03:14He never reached the end, drowning probably due to heat exhaustion.
03:18When Jose Flores took up horse racing, he was following in his father's footsteps.
03:22The son of a Peruvian jockey, Flores watched races as a boy and resolved to win them as
03:27a man.
03:28After settling in Pennsylvania, he started a stellar run, winning his first title in
03:321992.
03:33Over the course of his 30-plus year career, he became one of the winningest jockeys in
03:38the state's history, with 4,650 victories and over $64 million in earnings.
03:44In March 2018, the 56-year-old Flores was closing in on win number 4,651 when something
03:51went horribly awry.
03:53He and his horse were leading when the steed suddenly fell.
03:56Flores slammed headfirst against the ground.
03:58He left behind a wife, their 7-year-old son, and two older sons from an earlier relationship.
04:04During the early 1980s, Soviet fencer Vladimir Smirnov was arguably the best in the world.
04:09In 1980, he earned gold at the Moscow Olympics by breaking a three-way tie in the men's individual
04:15foil.
04:16He also earned silver and bronze medals in team competition.
04:19The following year, he pulled off an impressive comeback win at the World Fencing Championships
04:24after seeing his teammates eliminated in the preliminaries.
04:27In 1982, he sought to extend his dominance at the Rome World Championships.
04:31Instead, his reign reached a gruesome end.
04:35Smirnov squared off with German Matthias Baer.
04:37During their fateful match, Baer's blade broke against Smirnov's chest.
04:41The blade pierced Smirnov's mask, went into his head, and punctured his brain.
04:46Though placed on life support, doctors said he had no brain reflexes.
04:50Smirnov was 29.
04:52The horrifying incident ushered in a new era of safety precautions for fencers.
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