IRONMAN triathlon star reveals heart symptoms forced him to withdraw during Kona slugfest

Polish athlete Robert Wilkowiecki is back in his home country and having further tests after symptoms of paroxysmal arrhythmia forced him to withdraw two thirds of the way through the IRONMAN World Championship in Kona.

The 30-year-old was in the lead pack in the swim in Hawaii with a time of 47:23 and initially to the fore on the bike too, which he completed, but he didn’t start the run.

Patrick Lange, also in the front group during the swim and the chase pack on the bike would go on to win an epic race in brilliant style.

Difficult decision

And writing on Instagram, Wilkowiecki has given a detailed explanation as to the reason for his unfortunate exit, revealing that the issue had first appeared at IRONMAN Frankfurt where he left the race after the swim.

He said: “After my IRONMAN race in August I was diagnosed with paroxysmal arrhythmia following thorough examinations and consultations.

“My medical team gave me the green light to participate in the IRONMAN World Championships in Kona. I was closely monitored throughout the preparation period, with my health under constant supervision by specialists.

“Unfortunately during the race the symptoms of arrhythmia returned forcing me to make the difficult decision to withdraw from the competition.”

info-circle What is Paroxysmal Arrhythmia?

According to John Hopkins medicine, an arrhythmia is “an abnormality in the timing or pattern of the heartbeat.

“When you have an arrhythmia, your heart may beat too quickly or too slowly, or you may experience an irregular rhythm in which your heart feels as if it is ‘skipping a beat’.”

Next steps

Looking forward, Wilkowiecki added: “Prioritising my health remains essential. I will soon return to Poland to continue diagnostics and determine the next steps in this challenging situation.

“I kindly ask all fans and the sports community for understanding and support. This is an exceptionally demanding time and every gesture of encouragement means a lot to me.”

We reached out to Robert to convey our support and ask what the latest situation is.

And he told us he’s now back in Poland having further examinations and “most likely a little surgery-ablation”.

He’s also been explaining in more detail to the Polish media exactly what how things have worked out in 2024, telling WP SportoweFakty: “To be clear – I only started [training again] because doctors informed me that arrhythmia does not directly threaten my health or life.

“It is not a defect of the heart itself, and the symptoms of arrhythmia are relatively mild. For this very reason, I was counting on learning to train with it and it would not hinder me in competitions. Unfortunately, over the course of the year, I did not learn to anticipate subsequent symptoms, and they kept surprising me.

“A year ago I noticed that sometimes even during a leisurely run, my heart rate would suddenly increase from 140 to about 200 beats per minute. It wasn’t related to exertion, so at that time I thought it was just a measurement error. This year it started happening much more often, and it was accompanied by dizziness, a feeling of palpitations, I would start to have weak legs, I would get hot and feel like vomiting. However, I never fainted because of it.”

And in terms of Kona, he added: “This time, bigger problems appeared during the cycling stage, but they were slightly different than in Frankfurt. Every attempt to go into higher gear resulted in symptoms such as weakness, numbness in the hands or “cutting off the power in the legs”. After some time, I lost the feeling that further attempts to go into my maximum capacity were safe for me. And without that, there is no way to compete for high positions.”

He now hopes to have the ablation procedure, followed by two to four weeks rest and then start to build up training ahead of the 2025 season.

Last season at IRONMAN Texas he finished runner-up to Rudy von Berg and also made the top 10 in the IRONMAN World Championship in Nice. And the year before he won two 70.3 races, both in Poland – Warsaw and Poznań.

Robert Wilkowiecki wins IRONMAN 70.3 Warsaw in 2022 [Photo Credit: Bartek Syta / IRONMAN 70.3 Warsaw]

We wish him all the best with his continued recovery and hope he’s healthy and back racing in the near future.