Former star athletes ‘die suddenly’

Two star athletes have died suddenly within days of each other with no cause of death given.

Olympic swimmer Helen Smart, née Helen Don-Duncan, died in her sleep Saturday at the age of 42. Though she had been paddle boating just hours earlier with no visible health issues, she was found unresponsive by her four-year-old daughter. 

“'Daddy, I can't wake mummy up,” the child reportedly told her father.

Smart represented Britain in the Olympics and won silver medals in both the world and European championships.

Her mother Linda said Smart “had never even been ill apart from her knees swelling from swimming.”

“We're distraught,” she added. “They don't know what it is but they think it must have happened shortly after she went to bed. She just died in her sleep.”

Smart had retired from swimming to become a school teacher.

The sudden death came the same week former college football and NFL star Sean Dawkins died suddenly at 52. During his nine-year career with the NFL, Dawkins played for the Indianapolis Colts, Seattle Seahawks, New Orleans Saints and Jacksonville Jaguars. He was also a consensus All-American in his junior year at Cal.

No cause was given for Dawkins’ death, only that he died suddenly following a “medical emergency”. Reports say he had suffered a cardiac arrest.

The Jacksonville Jaguars, one of Dawkins’ former teams, lost another of their former players last December when 38-year-old linebacker Uche Nwaneri was found dead in his home. Autopsy results Monday revealed the 38-year-old Jacksonville Jaguars linebacker had died of an “enlarged heart with acute heart failure.” Nwaneri had sparked controversy during the pandemic with his hostility towards those who refused the COVID-19 vaccines.

“What kind of idiot must one be to actually take a dewormer ivermectin which has absolutely nothing in any study anywhere about using for Covid, but you’re [sic] stupid ass doesn’t want a vax,” Nwaneri tweeted in August 2021. “I mean natural selection takes over at some point right?” 

Nwaneri’s critics agreed it does.

In May, two former Olympic medalists also died suddenly. One was 32-year-old Tori Bowie, an American track and field athlete who won three Olympic medals and a two-time world champion in track and field. The other was 51-year-old Olympic medalist Calvin Davis, who took home the bronze for the 400m hurdles at the 1996 games in Atlanta. He competed in the 2001 world championships, after which he became a coach.

The month prior, former NFL defensive lineman Chris Smith died at the age of 31. It is unclear exactly when or how Smith died.

The month before that, XFL athletic trainer Ben Siegfried died unexpectedly at the age of 22. No cause of death was disclosed.

In December of last year NFL legend and four-time Superbowl champion Franco Harris died in his sleep at 72, though no cause of death was disclosed. 

The month prior, 56-year-old former NFL defensive lineman Brad William Henke died in his sleep. No cause of death was disclosed. 

Also in November, 45-year-old former NFL defensive lineman Adrian Dingle died unexpectedly. No cause of death was disclosed. 

College basketball star Derek Gray, 20, died unexpectedly in July last year after suffering a ‘cardiac event’, according to his coach.