Snowboarder Sophie Hediger, who was part of the Switzerland’s national snowboard cross team that competed in the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022, has died after being caught in an avalanche in the Swiss Alps on Monday.
According to the New York Times, Hediger was snowboarding with another person down a closed black diamond slope in Arosa, a mountain village in eastern Switzerland, when they left the slope, the initial police report stated.
Unfortunately, Hediger was lost in the avalanche, prompting her companion to notify rescue services, who immediately began looking for her.
However, it was not until after more than two hours that they could locate her buried in the snow.
The rescuers tried but were unable to resuscitate her, according to the police.
She was 26.
Hediger reached the podium for the first time in a World Cup race, finishing second in a competition in St. Moritz, Switzerland, in January before she finished third in a World Cup race in Gudauri, a ski area in the Caucasus Mountains in Georgia, the following month.
Less than two weeks ago, she competed in a World Cup race in Cervinia, Italy.
“For the Swiss Ski family, the tragic death of Sophie Hediger has cast a dark shadow over the Christmas holidays,” Walter Reusser, the chief executive of Swiss Ski, the country’s ski and snowboarding federation, said in a statement on Monday.
“We are immeasurably sad. We will honour Sophie’s memory,” he added.
