This is what confirmation bias looks like. You weren't looking for it before, and people weren't incentivized to sensationalize athletes' medical problems in the past.
Sudden cardiac problems tend to rear their heads when you're overexerting yourself, no matter how healthy you perceive yourself to be[1]. There's a reason gyms have defibrillators, it's because strenuous exercise increases your risks of sudden cardiac events.
Here's an article from 2012, titled "Why do sports stars collapse in action?", that examines the collapse of athletes while playing sports[2]:
> Professional sports players are generally in prime physical condition, especially with today’s advanced physiological, nutritional and medical knowledge.
> However, Fabrice Muamba is the latest in a growing list of athletes around the world who have suffered heart problems – seemingly out of nowhere.
Weird how this sudden trend goes all the way back to 2012.
I agree the phenomenon isn't new.[1] But that doesn't mean that number of cases hasn't changed. I think what started the recent 'sudden cardiac death of athletes' speculation is more the perceived incidence than the phenomenon itself.
Sudden cardiac problems tend to rear their heads when you're overexerting yourself, no matter how healthy you perceive yourself to be[1]. There's a reason gyms have defibrillators, it's because strenuous exercise increases your risks of sudden cardiac events.
Here's an article from 2012, titled "Why do sports stars collapse in action?", that examines the collapse of athletes while playing sports[2]:
> Professional sports players are generally in prime physical condition, especially with today’s advanced physiological, nutritional and medical knowledge.
> However, Fabrice Muamba is the latest in a growing list of athletes around the world who have suffered heart problems – seemingly out of nowhere.
Weird how this sudden trend goes all the way back to 2012.
[1] https://health.clevelandclinic.org/can-too-much-extreme-exer...
[2] https://www.cnn.com/2012/03/19/sport/health-muamba-heart-pro...