Try this instead...

$i = 0;
while (@row = $qry->fetchrow)
{
    print "\@row is assigned @row\n";
    $j = 0;
    foreach my $bug (@row)
    {
      $athlete[$i][$j] = $bug ;
      print "\$i\$j is assigned $i:$j\n";
      print "\$athlete[\$i,\$j] is assigned the value $athlete[$i][$j]
+\n";
      print "\$bug is assigned the value $bug\n";
      $j++;
    }
    $i++;
}
[download]