During the 2002 Provo Ironman, a cold front moved through just 20 minutes into the race. Winds suddenly shifted and gale-force downdrafts off the mountains produced 6-foot-high waves. Race officials canceled the swim and tried to get swimmers off the course as quickly possible. But before they could get everyone to safety, one man drowned.

That incident aside, triathlons, and Ironman races in particular, have an excellent safety record. That’s partly because sanctioned races must have certified lifeguards — at least one per 50 swimmers.

Even though race directors nationwide were meeting that requirement, they weren’t always integrating those lifeguards into a risk-management system.

Others in the sport realized there was a problem, too. “I knew there was a need for improvement. I also knew that whatever was developed must be easy to implement or race directors would not want to do it,” says Brian White, operations director at Starfish Aquatics and himself a race director. Brian is also a former USA Triathlon Junior National Team member, so he has a unique perspective when it comes to such races.

But when it comes to safety and triathlons, no one is more of an expert than Dan “Peewee” Bramblett, who serves as Ironman North American’s swim course safety director. Bramblett had misgivings about the current system, too.

So the three of us — Brian, Peewee and I — put our heads together and came up with a new triathlon rescue model for open- water courses. It works like this:
• Each course, regardless of length, is divided into 250- and 500-yard “zones.”

• Each 250-yard zone is assigned a rescue team consisting of a lifeguard on a watercraft and a two-kayak “wolfpack,” trained to patrol and watch for swimmers in distress.

• For large races, additional spotters, EMS and rescue divers are stationed on watercraft every 500 yards.

• All volunteers and rescue personnel attend a three-hour orientation session that includes in-water rescue scenarios.

• Kayakers are trained in techniques that block the flow of swimmers, creating access for a lifeguard to make a rescue in the middle of the swim pack.

“The orientation is ideal for our volunteers,” Peewee says. “It also helps keep the number of lifeguards and watercraft on the course down to a manageable number.”

This sentiment is echoed by Barb McCarthy, swim captain at Ironman Wisconsin. “This year, we started instituting the [new] system and it’s a huge improvement over what we did last year, which was basically to sign up lifeguards, kayakers and motorboaters, but did not put them through any drills or any specific training,” Barb says. “[And] I feel that it develops a cohesiveness with the volunteers.”

Peewee says the new system may soon become the model of choice for the USA Triathlon. “We have approached USAT with the idea of changing the current requirement of ‘X number of lifeguards to X number of athletes’ for all sanctioned races,” he says. “The [new] system proved itself in Ironman events and is set up to work and allow for complete course coverage, no matter the distance or type of course.”