Julie Pomagalski, a former Olympian and world champion snowboarder, has died in an avalanche in the Swiss Alps. She was 40.
Pomagalski competed in the parallel giant slalom at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics and the 2006 Turin Games for France.
She won gold in the snowboard cross at the world championships in 1999.
The French ski federation said Pomagalski died on Tuesday but did not specify the location.
French and Swiss media widely reported the avalanche took place on Gemsstock mountain in the Swiss canton of Uri.
The federation said a guide, Bruno Cutelli, also died in the avalanche.
Uri police said that four people from France were free-riding on the descent from Gemsstock.
“Suddenly there was an avalanche for reasons that are still unknown,” the police statement said.
“As a result, three people slid down the slope with the avalanche.
“One person was slightly injured and flown by Rega to Kantonsspital Uri hospital.
“The other two people were completely covered.
“Any help came too late for them.”
The rescue team included two avalanche search dogs.
The French Olympic team offered their condolences on Twitter.
“The tragic death of Julie, an Olympian and world champion snowboarder, leaves the French Olympic team in mourning for one of its own,” the team said.
Olympic torch relay to begin
The long-awaited torch relay for the postponed Tokyo Olympics is to commence in the north-eastern prefecture of Fukushima on Thursday despite persistent concerns about the coronavirus.
The 121-day relay is due to start at the J-Village football training centre near the damaged Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, the site of Japan’s worst atomic disaster 10 years ago.
The Olympic flame will be carried in turns by about 10,000 torchbearers across the nation’s 47 prefectures.
The relay culminates in the lighting of the Olympic cauldron at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Games on July 23.
“We hope that the torch relay can bring hope, strength, and energy to each destination, embodying the theme of ‘Hope Lights Our Way,’” Tokyo organising committee president Seiko Hashimoto told a news conference on Wednesday.
Hashimoto also thanked the torchbearers for their patience as the coronavirus pandemic forced the committee and the International Olympic Committee a year ago to delay the Games until this summer.
“I hope you will connect the thoughts and feelings of us all, so that this can become a source of collective power for our society to overcome hardship,” she said.
The relay will be held with strict social distancing measures.
People are encouraged to watch it online and organisers are asking roadside spectators to wear masks and not to shout or cheer to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Members of Japan’s women’s football team from 2011, who won the World Cup that year, will get the relay under way on Thursday.