By Matthew Futterman, New York Times
Sledding athletes are taking their lives, Did Brain-Rattling Rides and High-Speed Crashes Damage their Brains ?
On May 3, Pavle Jovanovic, a former bobsledder, rigged a chain to a crane he and his brother kept in the shop of their family’s metal works in Toms River, N.J. He tied the loose end around his neck and hanged himself.
Jovanovic, an Olympian, was just 43, but already experiencing the shakes and tremors often associated with Parkinson’s disease. He was also the third elite North American bobsledder to kill himself since 2013. Adam Wood, whose wife taped his anguished calls as his mental health deteriorated, so there would be a record, died by suicide in 2013 at age 32. The following year, Travis Bell, who competed for the United States in the late 1990s, took his life at age 42.
In addition, Steven Holcomb, who in 2010 piloted the sled known as the Night Train to the first gold medal for the United States in bobsled in 62 years, died alone of an overdose in 2017 after years of depression. He was 37.
Another Olympic medalist, Bill Schuffenhauer, sliced open his wrist in 2016, but was saved by his girlfriend.
In recent years, an increasing number of athletes….
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