CHICAGO _ A Northwestern University rower who drowned in April after being ejected from his racing boat told a teammate a few days before his death that he couldn't swim, according to an Illinois State Police report.
The report into Mohammed Ramzan's death, released to the Tribune under a Freedom of Information request, also quotes several team members as saying they didn't have to pass a swim test before being allowed on the water _ even though they, like most rowers, didn't wear flotation devices.
That is contrary to safety guidelines published by USRowing, the sport's governing body, which call for participants to demonstrate their swimming ability. A Northwestern spokesman said the team has since instituted a "safety exam" for its members, but would not say if that includes a swim test.
Ramzan, a 19-year-old freshman, had rowed with the team only a few times before reporting for practice on the North Shore Channel the morning of April 10, the report says. He was on an 8-rower boat with other novices, their coach traveling nearby in a motorized launch.
The team was finishing its final training set when the blade of Ramzan's oar entered the water incorrectly, forcing the handle to snap back on him. The force of the blow apparently knocked him out of the boat, the report says; investigators later found an abrasion on the right side of his face.
Some teammates said they saw him briefly bob at the surface before disappearing. The coach and another rower leaped into the cold, murky water but were unable to find him. Rescue divers found his body about 12 hours later at the bottom of the 10-foot-deep channel.
Getting struck by an oar is known as "catching a crab," and it's not an unusual occurrence in the sport. One club member told police that just one week before Ramzan's death, "(A) female rower was ejected from a rig, hit her head and suffered a concussion."
Still, several rowers said the club did not require swimming ability. A Northwestern coxswain who was on the water that morning said Ramzan had told her two or three days before his death that he couldn't swim.
"(The coxswain) stated it seemed like an off-handed comment," the report says. "(She) stated she did not think much about it because it is so rare for someone to fall in the water."
