JINSHAN CITY, China — Unsafe water temperatures created chaos in the 25-kilometer races at the open water world championships Saturday, forcing most of the American team to withdraw and one swimmer to accuse organizers of acting irresponsibly for allowing the events to be held.
The men's and women's races were moved up two hours to a 6 a.m. start in an attempt to stage them in cooler conditions, but the water was already 87 degrees — just under the suggested "unsafe" point of 88 degrees.
As the morning wore on, the water temperature reached 88 degrees and the sun began beating down on the course. The air temperature reached 90 with 68 percent humidity by the time the race finished.
Italy's Edoardo Stochino was pulled from the water 4 hours, 50 minutes into the race and taken away on a stretcher as officials poured cold water over his chest.
Germany's Thomas Lurz and American Alex Meyer didn't start the race and defending champion Valerio Cleri of Italy withdrew after four hours, saying it was "too hot and too dangerous" to continue.
"There's not enough attention on the athletes," Cleri said. "There should not have been a race here. The jury was irresponsible."
Of the 35 men entered in the race, only 19 finished, with 10 pulling out before the finish. Six decided not to start.
Only four of the 21 women who started the race withdrew midway through. Two did not start, including Linsy Heister of the Netherlands, the champion in the 25K at the open water world championships last year.
Bulgaria's Peter Stoychev won the men's race in 5:10:39.8.
"I felt fine. It wasn't a very fast pace for me but probably because of the hot weather," Stoychev said.
As for whether the race should have continued when the temperature hit 31, he said: "No need to discuss. It's time to end."
The women's race had a sprint finish, with Brazil's Ana Marcela Cunha beating Germany's Angela Maurer by a body length. Cunha finished in 5:29.22.9.
Dennis Miller, FINA's liaison official for open water swimming, defended the decision not to halt the race when the water temperature reached 31 degrees, saying the lead packs of men and women swimmers were looking strong and necessary precautions were being taken, such as having two doctors and multiple boats on the course.
"Thirty-one degrees is a guideline, it's not a rule," he said. "We have to take into account how the swimmers are actually looking in the water, how the coaches are feeding the swimmers. It is really the coach's responsibility, their duty to care for their athletes.
"Even though the water temperature did get up to 31, we had some discussions about halfway through the race about whether to continue or to call it at eight laps or whether to go on, and basically after eight laps the leads packs — both men and women — were looking good, their stroke rates were good, so we decided to continue."
Miller responded to criticisms that the race was too dangerous to hold by saying that some of the competitors should have been better prepared for the conditions.
"It was safe because everyone was well-looked after and if there was an issue, they were immediately voluntarily out of the water."
"There were obviously a group of athletes who were better prepared than others," he added. "The majority of the swimmers finished.
Safety has become a major concern in open water swimming following the death of American Fran Crippen in the United Arab Emirates last year. Crippen, a six-time U.S. national champion, died in October near the end of a 10K World Cup event in warm temperatures. No one noticed him slip beneath the surface and his body was not found until two hours after the race.
The American swimmers are wearing "FC" on their warmup suits in memory of Crippen.
Organizers here unveiled a high-tech sonar system to quickly locate any swimmer that drops below the surface.
U.S. coach Jack Roach asked his team not to compete before the race began.
"USA swimming took the stance this morning based on the water temperature that was taken at the beginning of the race, which was 30.5, that it was within the standards, but we felt that before the race was over it would not be and we recommended to all our swimmers that they not swim," Roach said.
The only American to start was Claire Thompson, who was in her first international event and wanted to swim. But American officials pulled her from the water 4½ hours in when they checked the water and found it to be 90.7 degrees.
"There was no point in taking a chance," Roach said, adding that Thompson wanted to continue swimming. "She felt fine. She didn't want to get out."
Meyer, the only U.S. man scheduled to swim Saturday, won the 25k race at last year's world championships in Quebec, Canada. He finished fourth in the 10k here while Lurz won the silver, qualifying both for the London Olympics next year.
Meyer blasted FINA officials for deciding to hold the race in the first place.
"What's the point in making rules and recommendations if you're just going to blow them off at events like this," he said during the race. "I'm deeply disappointed that they're continuing to hold this race."
"It's like, did you not learn your lesson? Do you not remember what happened last time?" he added, referring to the race in which Crippen died. "And if these FINA guys they say, 'Oh you're not in good shape, you're not a good enough swimmer' ... No, it's not because I'm not a good swimmer, it's because it's too hot."