Ok, we cleaned up the @/$/[,]/[][] problem. But why don't you just write:

  for ($i=0; $i<$qry->numrows; $i++) {
    @row = $qry->fetchrow or warn '...';
    print "\@row is assigned @row\n";
    $athlete[$i] = [ @row ];
  }
[download]

or even perlier:

  for my $i (0 .. $qry->numrows - 1) {
    @row = $qry->fetchrow() or warn '...';
    $athlete[$i] = [ @row ];
  }
[download]

or (I hate array subscripts):

  for (1 .. $qry->numrows) {
    @row = $qry->fetchrow() or warn '...';
    push @$athlete, [ @row ];
  }
[download]

ok, no2 looks better ;)

Update: Oops, and again i coded rusbish. Fixed code no3, now it no longer looks bad ;)