A Very Sad Day

Pro racer Steve Larsen dies of heart attack during running workout
By Steve Frothingham
Published: May. 20, 2009
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Steve Larsen, probably the only professional who competed and won major races as a mountain biker, road biker and triathlete, died Tuesday evening after collapsing during a running workout, his friend Michael Nyberg told VeloNews.

Larsen was 39 and he and his wife had five children.

"He was doing a track workout and he collapsed. They did CPR immediately and an ambulance arrived quickly, but they weren't able to save him," Nyberg said.

Larsen began racing in the 1980s and raced for the Motorola team for three years in the early 1990s, racing the Giro d'Italia. He then moved into mountain biking, winning the NORBA National Cross-Country Mountain Bike title in 1998 and 2000.

In 2001, he switched to triathlon, qualifying for the Ironman in his first year in the sport, and finishing ninth at the Hawaii event. He also competed in XTerra offroad triathlons. He was reportedly the only American to compete in the world championships for road, mountain bike, track and cyclocross.

He retired from professional racing in 2003 and opened a real estate agency in Bend, Oregon.