(News)
– A two-time Olympic snowboarder and former world champion of the sport died on Tuesday in an avalanche in the Swiss Alps. Julie Pomagalski, who competed in the 2002 and 2006 Winter Games, was 40 years old, reports the New York Times. She and three others were freeriding (on unkempt terrain in the backcountry) on Gemsstock Mountain when a slab of snow came off and swept away three people. Pomagalski and a guide, Bruno Cutelli, who was also a member of a mountain rescue unit, were killed; When the emergency services arrived, they were completely buried in the snow. The third person was hospitalized; People report that the victim was only slightly injured.
“The tragic death of Julie, snowboard world champion and Olympic champion, makes the French OLY team mourn its own,” said the French Olympic organization on Wednesday. Avalanches kill an average of 100 people per year in Europe; So far this season there have been 85 fatalities. Pomagalski’s grandfather invented the first surface lift in 1934 to carry skiers on the Alpe d’Huez in the French Alps. (Read more avalanche stories.)
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