Sudden cardiac arrest is the biggest killer of college athletes, particularly basketball players, pre-COVID studies show

• Bronny James, LeBron James' son, went into cardiac arrest during basketball practice on Monday.
• The incident was used to spread baseless anti-vaccine talking points.
• But pre-COVID research suggests Black, male, college athletes are at risk of cardiac arrest.

Sudden cardiac death is the biggest killer of college athletes — particularly Black, male basketball players — according to research that contextualizes Bronny James' condition amid baseless speculation that the COVID vaccine may have been the cause. 

LeBron James' son, who plays college basketball at the University of Southern California, was hospitalized on Monday after he collapsed during practice. The 18-year-old was training in USC's Galen Center when he went into cardiac arrest — when the heart stops beating suddenly — and was taken to the ICU.

According to a family statement on Tuesday, James was out of the ICU and in a stable condition.

Two cardiologists who were not involved in James' care told the LA Times the fact that he was able to leave the ICU within 24 hours of the cardiac arrest was "really promising." 

"Even for a young, healthy athlete, being out of the ICU already is pretty good," Dr. Cheng-Han Chen, interventional cardiologist and director of a structural heart disease program, told the outlet.

Elon Musk used James' cardiac arrest to spread anti-vaccine talking points

Elon Musk, CEO of X (formerly Twitter), was among those to speculate whether James' cardiac arrest was a result of myocarditis (heart muscle inflammation) caused by the COVID-19 vaccine. 

However, the risk of developing myocarditis as a result of the COVID vaccine is very slim, and is far lower than the risk of developing myocarditis after having been infected with coronavirus itself, according to Yale School of Medicine experts. A fact-check that noted this was added to Musk's post but has since been removed. 

There is also no credible evidence that James' cardiac arrest was caused by myocarditis, or that it was connected to him receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. 

The speculation skirts around research showing links between cardiac arrest and college athletes and, as Insider's Gabby Landsverk's previously reported, there is a "long history of athletes suffering cardiac events during competition in sport." 

Black, male, basketballers appear to be at greater risk of sudden cardiac death

When sudden cardiac arrest kills someone it's called sudden cardiac death.

In one 2011 study that looked at 273 sudden deaths in National Collegiate Athletic Association student athletes between 2004 and 2008, cardiovascular-related sudden deaths were the leading cause.

And according to a 2016 review by the NCAA, basketballers and footballers are at the highest risk of sudden cardiac death, with male basketballers and footballers only making up 23% of all NCAA athletes, but over 50% of sudden cardiac death cases. The reasons why footballers and basketballers are more at risk are unknown.

In young athletes, sudden cardiac arrest usually happens because of a hard blow to the chest, or structural or electrical heart abnormalities that are inherited, which can be triggered by exercise, according to The Sports Institute. 

According to a 2015 review, the risk of sudden cardiac death is also higher in men and in Black athletes, and around 6 in every 100,000 African American male athletes go into cardiac arrest per year.

James is not the first on his team to experience cardiac arrest. Freshman athlete Vince Iwuchukwu also collapsed during an informal practice at USC's Galen Centre in July 2022.

Iwuchukwu recovered and returned to basketball, and the experience meant that USC's staff were able to respond to James' cardiac arrest in a way which was "masterfully executed," Dr. Michael Ackerman, a genetic cardiologist with the Mayo Clinic, told the LA Times.