How Did Hayley McNeff Die? Champion Bodybuilder Dies Suddenly Aged 37 Leaving Fraternity in Shock

Champion bodybuilder Hayley McNeff has died at the age of 37, becoming the seventh bodybuilding death in the last six months. McNeff, originally from Concord, Massachusetts, died on August 8, though tributes only began appearing on Wednesday. Her cause of death has not yet bene revealed, but her obituary describes it as “unexpected yet peaceful.”

McNeff’s funeral is scheduled for this Sunday. According to an obituary on Boston.com, she was active in several sports growing up — including skiing and diving — and was a skilled equestrian. A UMass Amherst graduate, McNeff found her passion for bodybuilding as an adult. After retiring, she planned to earn a graduate degree in psychology.

Unexpected Death

McNeff shot to fame in the bodybuilding scene during the 2000s, winning multiple titles, including the 2009 East Coast Classic. She continued to compete into the 2010s and appeared in the 2016 bodybuilding documentary Raising The Bar, where she reflected on her career, saying, “The quest for getting huge will never end. There’s no limit. I hope there’s a day that I’ll be able to look in the mirror 100 percent of the time and be like ‘yeah man, I’m huge.’|

Her death adds to a troubling wave of recent deaths in the bodybuilding world — now totaling seven in the last six months.

In late July, Spanish bodybuilding champion Lorena Blanco died at 37 from a suspected heart attack while preparing to travel to Las Vegas for the Ms. Olympia competition.

A month earlier, Colombian bodybuilder Zunilda Hoyos Mendez, 43, was brutally killed in Spain in a hammer attack after telling her husband she wanted a divorce. Her husband, Jarrod Gelling, was later found dead with knife wounds in what police suspect was a suicide.

Too Many Unexpected Deaths

In May, two Brazilian weightlifters died within a week of each other. On May 6, 30-year-old champion Gui Bull died from asphyxiation, and just days later, fellow 30-year-old Wanderson da Silva Moreira collapsed and died while competing in the Pantanal bodybuilding championship.

Back in April, 44-year-old bodybuilder and actor Vito Pirbazari suffered a fatal heart attack after collapsing on a treadmill.

In March, 20-year-old bodybuilder Jodi Vance died after her heart stopped due to “severe dehydration,” her family said in a statement.

A study released earlier this year by the European Society of Cardiology found that “sudden cardiac death accounts for an unusually high percentage of deaths among male bodybuilders globally, with the greatest risk seen in professionals.”

The research determined that professional bodybuilders face a fivefold higher risk of sudden cardiac death compared to amateur competitors.