After Fran Crippen — the 26-year-old world-class swimmer who died during a race in Dubai last weekend — returns home for burial in Conshohocken on Saturday, his family says they will work to ensure his death has a lasting impact on the safety of open-water events.
His sister Maddy said officials in the United Arab Emirates pinpointed drowning as the official cause.
“We’re relieved to know that it wasn’t a pre-existing condition that he, or our family, could have done something about,” said Maddy, who swam at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. “It proves that something went wrong while swimming. U.S. Swimming is on site to find out what happened.”
