Swimming coach dies after spending more than 2 minutes submerged while practicing breath-holding

A former competitive swimmer who worked as a swimming and diving coach in the United States has died after drowning while practicing underwater breath-holding.

According to People magazine Wednesday local time, Jack Roney, 39, a swimming coach at North Carolina State University, was found unconscious in a pool on July 5 and later died.

The North Carolina medical examiner's office said Tuesday that Roney's cause of death was determined to be accidental drowning. An autopsy report noted that Roney had been in "athlete-healthy condition" at the time of the drowning, and stated there was "no evidence of drug use or foul play, and no trauma was found."

Roney's father, John, said his son died from "shallow-water blackout," a form of hypoxic syncope. In an interview with the News & Observer, John said he wanted to raise awareness that "holding your breath underwater for a long time is dangerous," adding, "I hope this doesn't happen to anyone else."

Roney's wife had briefly stepped away and returned to find her husband unconscious in the pool. Paramedics arrived and performed CPR for about 40 minutes before transporting him to a hospital, where he died.

Police obtained footage showing Roney submerged in roughly 1.8 meters of water for about two minutes and 14 seconds just before he drowned. He briefly surfaced but went back underwater and did not come out.

Medical experts have warned about the dangers of hypoxic syncope, noting that prolonged breath-holding underwater can cause a sudden loss of consciousness due to oxygen deprivation — a potentially fatal risk even for highly skilled swimmers.

According to the National Institutes of Health, hypoxic syncope can lead not only to drowning but also to hypoxic brain injury or cardiac arrest.