Young Prodigy Named in Forbes' '30 Under 30' List Collapses and Dies Hours After Setting Personal Best Marathon Time

By Lorri Wickenhauser February 16, 2023 at 6:23pm

A young man collapsed and died shortly after setting a personal best time in a marathon in Mesa, Arizona.

Pierre Lipton of Providence, Rhode Island, was taken to a hospital, but was pronounced dead after the Feb. 4 event, according to the Boston Globe. He was 26.

Lipton’s father, an emergency medicine specialist, told the Globe that “[t]he working diagnosis is he might have had some sudden electrolyte imbalance that caused arrhythmia.”

Lipton was remembered as a “brilliant” Brown University graduate who had co-founded the news company 1440 Media, named after both the year the printing press was invented and the number of minutes in a day.

Numbers captured the triumph and tragedy of Pierre Lipton’s final day: The Providence man, who founded 1440 Media and was on Forbes 30 Under 30, finished the Mesa (Arizona) Marathon in 3:10 — with a pace of 7:15 per mile — before collapsing and dying. https://t.co/bl40hu8nUV

— Boston Globe Rhode Island (@Globe_RI) February 14, 2023

The mission of the company was “to share fact-focused information with the world” with news that is as “unbiased as humanly possible.”

For that achievement, Lipton had been named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list for media in 2022.

Lipton’s obituary listed many other accomplishments.

“In college, he started VitaLives, a company aimed at reducing malnutrition and vitamin deficiency,” it said.

“He continues his philanthropy today, dedicated to causes he is passionate about like food security, the environment, animal welfare, and health and athletics in less fortunate communities.

“As an organ donor, he also improved many lives.”

One of his goals was to play soccer or run “at a semi-elite level for Tonga in the South Pacific.”

He didn’t have the chance to realize that dream, “even though everyone who knows him knows that he would have accomplished it,” according to his obituary.

Lipton’s girlfriend was one of those expressing shock and devastation on social media about the unexpected loss.

“On Saturday, I lost the love of my life. The person I thought I would spend forever with,” Eleanor Pereboom wrote.

“He accomplished more than anyone I know in just 26 years, but he still had so many plans.

“He collapsed at the marathon finish line, after running his fastest time for the distance. … He was doing what he loved.

She urged friends to “Please read his obituary and remember him. He was truly an incredible person.”