Jenny Simpson, one of the most decorated middle-distance runners in American history, has revealed she was diagnosed with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) after going into cardiac arrest in June, and that she won’t return to running because of it. Simpson collapsed on June 16 while pacing a group of girls in a community mile race in Raleigh, North Carolina.
She underwent CPR at the track and was revived with an automated external defibrillator before being rushed to the hospital, where she went into cardiac arrest a second time and spent nine days at Duke University Hospital. Doctors later diagnosed ARVC, a rare inherited condition in which scarring in the heart muscle interferes with the electrical signals that regulate heartbeat, occasionally triggering the kind of dangerous rhythm that stopped Simpson’s heart.
What ARVC Actually Is
ARVC is a genetic condition Simpson had unknowingly carried her entire life, and it’s notoriously difficult to detect through standard athletic screening because symptoms often don’t appear until a triggering cardiac event happens, sometimes during intense exercise. It’s a recognized, if rare, cause of sudden cardiac arrest in otherwise fit young athletes, which is part of why cases like Simpson’s tend to prompt renewed conversation about screening limits in competitive sports.
What’s Next for Simpson
Simpson, a three-time Olympian and world champion at 1,500 meters during a career that ran roughly from 2007 through her competitive prime, said the diagnosis makes returning to running too dangerous. She’s shifted her public focus to raising awareness of ARVC and the importance of recognizing sudden cardiac symptoms, rather than treating her diagnosis as a private medical matter.
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