Olympic snowboarder Sophie Hediger, 26, killed in avalanche

Olympic snowboarder Sophie Hediger was killed Monday in an avalanche in her native Switzerland, just days after her 26th birthday.

The country’s winter sports federation, Swiss-Ski, announced Tuesday that the young athlete died in the resort town of Arosa, on the heels of her Dec. 14 birthday.

Local authorities said Hediger was practicing off-piste, or away from prepared ski runs, with someone else and leaving a closed track when she was caught in the avalanche, according to Le Parisien.

Emergency services located Hediger after a two-hour search and failed to resuscitate her. An investigation is now underway.

“We are stunned and in our thoughts with Sophie’s family, to whom we express our deepest condolences,” Walter Reusser, CEO Sport of Swiss-Ski, said Tuesday. “For the Swiss Ski family, the tragic death of Sophie Hediger has a dark shadow over the Christmas days. We are immeasurably sad. We will keep an honorable memory of Sophie.”

The organization noted that Hediger grew up in Zurich-area Horgen but spent a lot of time in Arosa.

There had been a great deal of snowfall in the days leading up to the avalanche, according to Le Parisien.

An estimated 2,300 landslide avalanches were reported to the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF) last winter, up from 293 the previous winter.

“There, her life has now found a tragic, abrupt, much too early end at freeriding, a beloved hobby,” the federation said.

Freeride snowboarding, also known as backcountry or sidecountry snowboarding, generally involves foregoing established trails for unmarked mountain routes.

Swiss-Ski said that, after conferring with Hediger’s family and life partner, it would not further detail the circumstances surrounding her death and requested privacy for her loved ones.

Hediger also accomplished her first two World Cup podiums in the 2023-24 season, according to the federation.

She also hoped to win a medal at the world championship in March in Switzerland’s Engadin.

Hediger last posted on Instagram on Dec. 15 to share that she’d competed in her first world cup of the season at Cervino Ski Paradise.