Whoop CEO Tells of Unnamed Baseball Player's High Sleeping Heart Rate Before Lymphoma Diagnosis
Will Ahmed, chief of Whoop, described the nighttime readings as very abnormal against a usual resting rate of about 50.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg · WHOOP CEO, Will Ahmed: 50B Hours of Health Data, a 4 Million Member Data Moat, & the FDA FightWhile he slept, his tracker showed a heart rate of 120 and 130 beats per minute.
The account comes from Will Ahmed, the chief executive of Whoop, the company that makes the tracker. He did not name the player, describing him only as a fit, healthy baseball player.
In late October 2026, Ahmed said he had received a message about the readings. He said the company now hears accounts like this every day and every week, in which a member notices an unusual pattern and then seeks care.
In this case, Ahmed said the player's usual resting rate was about 50 beats per minute. He described the sleeping readings of 120 and 130 as very abnormal.
Ahmed said the player then went to see a doctor, and the doctor ordered tests. The tests led to a diagnosis of stage four Hodgkin lymphoma.
Ahmed said the player was able to get treatment and has recovered.
Questions people ask
What is stage four Hodgkin lymphoma?
Hodgkin lymphoma is a cancer that starts in white blood cells called lymphocytes, which are part of the immune system. Stage four means doctors found it in more widespread areas of the body beyond the lymph nodes.
Can a wrist tracker diagnose cancer?
Devices like Whoop record pulse based signals such as heart rate and heart rate variability during sleep and waking hours. They track patterns over time and do not test tissue or blood for cancer. They do not make medical diagnoses.
What is a typical sleeping heart rate?
Many healthy adults have daytime resting rates between 60 and 100 beats per minute, and trained athletes are often lower, sometimes in the 40s or 50s. Heart rate usually falls further during sleep than while awake and resting.