Heartbreaking Facts About Athletes Who Passed Tragically Young
When you’re young and successful, you sometimes lose awareness of your own mortality. Such is the case with athletes. Many have had tragically short lives despite whatever early triumphs they achieved in life.
Whether it was due to accident, recklessness, or tragic heroics, these athletes regretfully did not live to rest on their laurels. Find out more about them below.
42. Unlucky Number
Some of you might remember that the 27 Club is a thing in the music industry. This is a reference to the fact that many musicians have passed at the age of 27. These include Jim Morrison, Amy Winehouse, Kurt Cobain, and Janis Joplin.
Actors like Anton Yelchin and Jonathan Brandis have occasionally been included in this club, and as this list will show, quite a few famous athletes have also passed at this age. It seems to be a curse which transcends career choices.
41. The Deathly Plane
By 1999, Payne Stewart had become famous among pro golfers for his distinguishing wardrobe, which included ivy caps. He had also won more than $12 million throughout his career, including more than $2 million in 1999 alone.
Sadly, he also got onto a plane which failed to pressurize. All the people on board, including the pilots, fell victim to hypoxia. The plane continued to fly on autopilot until it ran out of fuel and crashed into a South Dakota field.
40. Perished Pioneer
In the 1970s, there was a "running boom," when running became a mainstream method of exercise and sporting events around running began to draw crowds. One of the people who spearheaded the running boom was Steve Prefontaine.
He ran middle and long distances for the US in the 1972 Olympics. Prefontaine ended up holding seven American records in seven different distance track events.
Sadly, his career was cut short when he became involved in a single car accident while having a blood intoxication level of 0.16.
39. We’ll Miss You, Sarah
Canadian freestyle skier Sarah Burke famously lobbied the International Olympics Committee to add the superpipe skiing event to the official 2014 Winter Games roster. Sadly, Burke did not live long enough to participate for a medal.
In 2012, Burke was badly injured while training, which led to a cardiac arrest. This, coupled with the lack of oxygen to her brain, caused Burke to lost his life of her injuries. She was only 29 years old.
