OSU Still Protecting Details on Rhabdo Event

Submitted by True Blue in CO on

From this morning's Columbus Dispatch is a story regarding how OSU continues to protect information about a Rhabdomyolysis (Rhabdo) event that affected six Women's LAX players one year ago.

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/sports/2013/03/09/illness-laid-low-6-athletes.html 

The story is of added note as it features Kelly Becker and her family and their efforts to encourage OSU to more fully disclose the events that caused the six athletes to fall ill.  Since the event Kelly earned a medical hardship and transferred to the Michigan Women's LAX team.

GoBlueInNYC

March 9th, 2013 at 11:23 AM ^

It happened during off season work outs a couple of years ago. You might have missed it, because it happened after the season ended, and aside from the illness and questions about pushing players too far, it didn't turn into a big scandal or anything. LINK

Coincidentally, one of the Iowa players hospitalized was Poggi's old brother, who plays linebacker.

mGrowOld

March 9th, 2013 at 11:23 AM ^

If OSU has taught fellow NCAA members anything its got to be how to handle NCAA investigators during an active investigation.  Obfuscate, deny and withhold.  Use any and all means necessary to block the flow of information and when pressed simply lie about the events that took place.

At the end of the day the NCAA lacks supoena power so all the can do ask real nicely for the schools to comply and basically indict themselves.  OSU was smart enough to not do so and   instead of pressing the issue with one of their cash-cows, the NCAA folded and moved elsewhere.  Don't think for a minute that Miami didn't watch this all unfold and will be doing the same thing here shortly as well.

So this is just more of the same.

bluebyyou

March 9th, 2013 at 11:24 AM ^

With competent trainers,  rhabdomyolysis should never happen to a group of athletes. I see that Ohio fired the S&C coach involved.  I suspect that what happened in Iowa and probably in Ohio is a coach telling the trainers to push the athletes really hard, and the trainers either being afraid to say no or not being competent enough to know the limits of the new routines.  It's not as if the victims of these incidents are out of shape hacks; they are all well conditioned athletes to start with.  There ought to be consequences that go beyond just the S&C coach.

bluesalt

March 9th, 2013 at 11:42 AM ^

College sports have become so competitive, with players spending tons of time and energy with S&C programs. Negligence on the coaches/trainers is certainly involved, but I wonder if athletes aren't getting pushed closer and closer to the edge, making the line of rhabdo easier to fall across. I read an SI article from a few years ago which mentioned a training camp study of the Philadelphia Eagles, and most of the Eagles showed a symptom (very dark urine) of rhabdo, just from a practice. It's nice to find a scapegoat, such as a coach or trainer, and perhaps the incidents are isolated enough to warrant that. But given the value on measurables, such as number of reps or max lifts, in the athletic community, it's possible that these coaches and trainers were simply the unlucky ones who designed a workout that was that final degree too intense.

LSAClassOf2000

March 9th, 2013 at 12:15 PM ^

"The OSU report includes a timeline of events leading up to the hospitalization, reasons why "the incident likely happened," and recommendations for increased education and prevention. Suggestions for university outreach on rhabdo were outlined, but did not include the report’s publication." - from the article

So, they write a detailed report about the incidents complete with recommendations for education and outreach, but they didn't recommend providing documents which would be critical to education and outreach? Gene Smith said that they were thinking about ways to get better relative to OSU, so what better way to do that than publish a report of an incident of rhabdo at Ohio State. Did I miss something here?

MGoStrength

March 9th, 2013 at 2:52 PM ^

Exertional rhabdomyolysis is becoming increasing common in high school, college, and professional sports.  The biggest risk factors seem to be when there is excessive eccentric exercise (the negative portion to a movement like coming down on a squat), repeated high intensity efforts, heat, dehydration, and inexperience.  Novel exercise is big here.  There have been a number of lawsuits of it occuring with people trying crossfit who are simply not prepared for the high intensity nature of the workout because they are pretty much new to training and don't have a strength or conditioning base yet and figure crossfit would be a good way to get fit.  But, you also see it a lot either in the beginning of preseason workouts when athletes aren't yet conditioned and heat and hydration are factors.  The same can be said of new spring practices or workouts.  It's something that strength coaches have on their radar, but I'm not sure sports coaches do as much, but hopefully the athletic trainers on duty for a practice can be able to judge this stuff, but not all high schools have that available to them.  I expect it to become increasingly more common as high intensity exercise becomes increasingly more common and our population becomes increasingly more sedentary.

LB

March 9th, 2013 at 7:51 PM ^

Not even a trip by all parties to the coffee capital of the country. Once again, this serves to highlight the soul-crushing effects of excessive stretching.