[Scenario Seed] The London Olympics curse

[Catsmate]

Since the 2012 Olympic Games ended eighteen athletes who took part have died suddenly¹. In France this is being referred to as the 'London Olympics curse'².
Is it an odd statistical blip, like the murder rate in San Luis Obispo? Or something more sinister?

The dead.

Name	Country	Sport(s)	Date of death	Manner of death
Keitani Graham	Micronesia	Wrestling	07DEC2012	Heart attack
Burry Stander	South Africa	Cycling	03JAN2013	Road accident
Andrew Simpson	UK	Sailing	09MAY2013	Boating accident
Elena Ivashchenko	Russia	Judo	15JUN2013	Suicide
Billy Ward	Australia	Boxing	04AUG2013	Suicide
Abdelrahman el-Trabily	Egypt	Wrestling	16AUG2013	Shot by police during political protest
Jakkrit Panichpatikum	Thailand	Pistol shooting	19OCT2013	Murdered, shot by mother-in-law
Christian Lopez	Guatemala	Weightlifting	06NOV1013	Died suddenly from pneumonia
Besik Kudukhov	Russia	Wrestling	29DEC2013	Road accident
Elena Baltacha	UK	Tennis	03MAY2014	Liver cancer
Camille Muffat	France	Swimming	09MAR2015	Helicopter crash
Alexis Vastine	France	Boxing	09MAR2015	Helicopter crash
Daundre Barnaby	Canada	Track running	27MAR2015	Disappeared while swimming
Trevor Moore	USA	Sailing	25JUN2015	Disappeared at sea
Yuliya Balykina	Belarus	Sprint running	late OCT2015	Murdered by former partner
Laurent Vidal	France	Triathlon	10NOV2015	Heart attack
Sarah Tait	Australia	Rowing	03MAR2016	Cervical cancer

Overall it's a wide mix of sports, nationalities and manners of death.

In the Whoniverse 'sinister' wins out over 'statistical blip' 99% of the time. So, is someone attempting to cover something up with a campaign of carefully managed assassinations?
Who? What? Why? Generally the 'what' will lead to 'who' and 'why'.

Were the athletes exposed to something at the games that necessitated their deaths, or directly caused at least some of them. Could it have been an experiment by someone (Magnus Greel and the Rani come to mind), using the generally fit Olympians as test subjects. Perhaps it's linked to the rash of child disappearances around the opening of the games.

• If it was supposed to enhance athletic performance it didn't do much; several of the dead didn't place in their sports.

Or are the dead merely the failures, and are many more athletes still carrying a subtle legacy from their trip to London?

• It'd have to be subtle, give the level of medical monitoring and drug testing such athletes are commonly subjected to.
  

Perhaps the Olympics had some unusual attendees that year. Creatures from another world whose presence contaminated some of the participants. A mess UNIT or another agency now has to clean up. Permanently.
Or were the athletes 'possessed' in some way by non-corporeal beings from another planet or dimension? If so, who's doing the killing? A team sent from their home planet to eliminate the refugees/dissidents/criminals perhaps? Or is it a conflict between two factions of the possessors? What are the aliens up to?

It'd be an interesting investigative scenario for UNIT; confronted with a statistical oddity the team must figure out what's going on, if anything.

• It'd also be an interesting possibility for a red herring. Perhaps the investigation leads the team to stumble over a completely different plot...
  

Ideas? Comments? Suggestions?



¹ The body of Trevor Moore had never been found, he is believed to have disappeared from his boat under odd circumstances. Foul play is suspected.
² Actually 'la malediction olympique'.


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[misterharry]

Actually, this is a bit of a non-story created by the French media. Given the thousands of athletes at the 2012 Olympics and their life expectancy, there should on average have been 28 deaths over the four years since then, not just 18.

So maybe the question should be, what is the cause of the low death rate among 2012 athletes. Could somebody be interfering in history to prevent the deaths of the ten athletes who should have died, and if so, why? And what is the effect on future history?

[Catsmate]

Apr 16, 2016 20:35:28 GMT misterharry said:

Actually, this is a bit of a non-story created by the French media. Given the thousands of athletes at the 2012 Olympics and their life expectancy, there should on average have been 28 deaths over the four years since then, not just 18.

True, it's strictly tabloid fare, August come early. In fact from around 10,700 athletes I'd expect more than 28 deaths.

Apr 16, 2016 20:35:28 GMT misterharry said:

So maybe the question should be, what is the cause of the low death rate among 2012 athletes. Could somebody be interfering in history to prevent the deaths of the ten athletes who should have died, and if so, why? And what is the effect on future history?

Excellent. That's a really good idea.