Over 150 participants of a tough mudder race in California’s Bay Area last year were infected by contaminated water. Today, those participants and others are filing lawsuits against the race organizers and others.
The 2023 Sonoma Raceway Tough Mudder, held last year in Sonoma, California, was hosed down and had showers that used water contaminated by bacteria known as Aeromonas. The contamination, which the lawsuit argues the race organizers failed to prepare against, caused racers to suffer rashes, headaches, vomiting, and other health symptoms. Images circulated online of both children and adults who were suffering from rashes that covered large swaths of their bodies.
One of the racers, Riverside County resident Evan Goldsmith, filed a lawsuit in Sonoma County Superior Court last week and named race organizers and operators as defendants. They include Boston-based Spartan Race Inc. and OCR US Holdings.
Goldsmith says, "We did the Saturday event and also the Sunday event, and on that Monday morning, we woke up completely covered from head to toe in a rash, not to get too graphic but they were puss!" He adds, "We drove home that Monday morning from Northern California to Southern California - by the time I got home, I had a really bad headache, I had a fever, it was really apparent at that point that we actually needed medical attention. "
In his lawsuit, Goldsmith and his legal team argue that the defendants were negligent in hosting the event because they used water from a hydrant they should have known was not filtered. Goldsmith is suing for negligence and emotional distress along with other damage. He says both he and his wife had to take time off of work because of the health issues they suffered as a result of the contaminated water.
Goldsmith's attorney Elan Zektser points the fault at race organizers for failing to use clean water on the racetrack. "They used what is called a non-potable source, a hydrant that has water that is not filtered,” Zektser explains. “They pumped it in areas where their participants were swimming and crawling around, and then if the participants weren't going to get sick on the race course they pumped it in the showers."
The lawsuit details that the "defendants were aware that they were pumping their racetrack and showers with a contaminated water source, yet they did it anyway."
Despite dozens of reports shortly after the race that participants became ill because of the contaminated water, race organizers have failed to give back refunds, according to Goldsmith and his lawyer.
