TRAGEDY

Olympic Snowboarder Sophie Hediger, 26, Dies in Avalanche

Sophie Hediger, an Olympic snowboarder who competed for the Swiss national team at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, was killed on Monday.

A 26-year-old Swiss Olympic snowboarder was killed in an avalanche on Monday, the European nation’s skiing federation confirmed in a statement the next day. Sophie Hediger, a snowboarder who competed in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, was caught in an avalanche near the resort town of Arosa, near Davos in western Switzerland. The Swiss-Ski federation said Hediger was freeriding, or snowboarding on ungroomed slopes, which the federation said was one of her hobbies. “We are stunned and our thoughts are with Sophie’s family, to whom we offer our deepest condolences,” said Walter Reusser, the CEO of Swiss-Ski in a statement. The federation did not provide any further details about the snowboarder’s death, but local police told ABC News she was caught by the avalanche after leaving a closed black diamond slope in the area. She was located about two hours after being buried, according to the report, and pronounced dead at the scene.