{"id":17556,"date":"2019-08-13T16:01:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-13T22:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/?p=59407"},"modified":"2019-08-13T16:01:00","modified_gmt":"2019-08-13T22:01:00","slug":"coroner-determines-cause-of-death-for-racer-who-collapsed-during-steamboat-stinger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/local-news\/coroner-determines-cause-of-death-for-racer-who-collapsed-during-steamboat-stinger\/","title":{"rendered":"Coroner determines cause of death for racer who collapsed during Steamboat Stinger"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Andrew Balika, a 45-year-old man from Littleton, died Saturday during the Steamboat Stinger mountain bike race on Emerald Mountain. He suffered a “sudden cardiac death” due to complications from a family medical condition, according to Routt County coroner Rob Ryg.<\/strong>
File photo\/Ben Ingersoll<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS \u2014 An autopsy performed in Routt County on Monday determined the cause of death for a man who collapsed Saturday during the Steamboat Stinger mountain bike race.<\/p>\n

Andrew Balika, 45, of Littleton suffered a \u201csudden cardiac death,\u201d Routt County Coroner Rob Ryg confirmed Tuesday.<\/p>\n

At around 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Steamboat Springs Fire Rescue firefighters responded to a report of a man in need of CPR in a remote area of Emerald Mountain.<\/p>\n

According to Routt County Undersheriff Doug Scherar, Balika had stopped by an aid station during the race near the intersection of the Beall and Ridge trails.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was talking to one of the race coordinators, and he just fell over,\u201d Scherar said Saturday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Race staff performed CPR until first responders arrived. Steamboat firefighters continued resuscitation efforts, but they were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n

During the autopsy, Ryg found the man had blockage in his arteries, a genetic condition, which he said contributed to Balika\u2019s sudden death.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis dad had the same thing at his age,\u201d Ryg explained, though Balika\u2019s father is still alive.<\/p>\n

Ryg said the man was otherwise in excellent physical shape.<\/p>\n

The incident temporarily closed a portion of the 50-mile bike race course, according to Steamboat Fire Rescue officials.<\/p>\n

Honey Stinger, the Steamboat-based company organizing the event, said in a social media post that Sunday\u2019s running race would continue as scheduled. Before the race, participants and organizers shared a moment of silence in honor of Balika, according to company co-owner Rich Hager.<\/p>\n

In the social media post, Honey Stinger expressed condolences to the man\u2019s family and friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst responders were on the scene immediately to assist in medical care, but unfortunately, were unable to revive the rider,\u201d the company wrote on Facebook<\/a>. \u201cIn the wake of this tragic incident, our entire team at Honey Stinger sends our most heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of the rider and to all who knew and rode with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Sky-Hi News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andrew Balika, a 45-year-old man from Littleton, died Saturday during the Steamboat Stinger mountain bike race on Emerald Mountain. He suffered a “sudden cardiac death” due to complications from a family medical condition, according to Routt County coroner Rob Ryg.File photo\/Ben Ingersoll STEAMBOAT SPRINGS \u2014 An autopsy performed in Routt County on Monday determined the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17556","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-13 18:30:52","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KRKY Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17556\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}