Switzerland’s nationwide snowboard cross group is mourning the lack of one among their very own after Olympian Sophie Hediger died in an avalanche on Monday.
She was 26.
Hediger was swept up in an avalanche within the mountain resort city of Arosa, Switzerland, the Swiss-Ski Federation introduced on Tuesday.
“We are stunned and our thoughts are with Sophie’s family, to whom we express our deepest condolences,” federation CEO Walter Reusser mentioned in an announcement. “For the Swiss Ski family, the tragic death of Sophie Hediger has cast a dark shadow over the Christmas holidays. We are immeasurably sad. We will keep an honorable memory of Sophie.”
Her demise got here 9 days after she celebrated her twenty sixth birthday on Dec. 14.
Particulars concerning the incident are restricted and in a launch, the Swiss-Ski Federation mentioned that it will not be releasing any additional details about Hediger’s demise at her household’s request.
Grisons cantonal police had introduced on Monday {that a} snowboarder had died in an avalanche whereas backcountry snowboarding, although the identification of the sufferer was by no means launched, French information outlet Le Parisien reported.
The snowboarder was not positioned till two hours after emergency companies had been notified and police have opened an investigation into the incident.
There had been heavy snowfall in Switzerland during the last a number of days which raised the danger of potential avalanches, in keeping with Le Parisien.
Hediger had spent a whole lot of time using in Arosa, in keeping with the discharge, and the federation mentioned her life “came to a tragic, sudden and far too early end.”
The 26-year-old had competed on the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing within the girls’s snowboard cross and the blended group occasion.
Hediger earned her first two World Cup podium finishes throughout the 2023-24 season and her finest end got here this previous January when she completed second in St. Moritz.
“Wow! what just happened yesterday! got my first World Cup podium at home! couldn’t be happier,” she wrote in an Instagram submit after the occasion.
