Image source, Getty Images
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- Author, Sean Kerns
- Author's title, BBC Sport
The German athlete Laura Dahlmeier, twice a biathlon champion, died at the age of 31 after a mountaineering accident in Pakistan.
The athlete was trapped under a rock detachment during an expedition in the Karakórum mountains on Monday.
His climbing partner, Marina Eva, called emergency services after the accident, which took place about 5,700 meters high.
Rescue teams, composed of expert climbers from Germany and the United States, began a rescue mission immediately, but adverse weather conditions hindered the search.
The company that represented Dahlmeier on Wednesday confirmed his death.
“A rescue operation began, but finally canceled on the night of July 29,” their representatives told the German newspaper The world.
“That nobody risks their life to recover it”
Image source, Getty Images
His representation company indicated that Dahlmeier probably died on July 28, the day of the accident.
“It was the express and written will of Laura Dahlmeier that, in a case like this, no one would risk her life to recover it.”
In this case, the desire was to leave his body on the mountain. This also coincides with the wishes of their relatives.
The German Olympic Committee said that Dahlmeier was “more than an Olympic champion: he was a person with heart, attitude and vision.”
The president of the International Olympic Committee, Kirsty Coventry, said that Dahlmeier's death is “deeply shocking for all of us who are part of the Olympic movement.”
He added: “He lost his life in his beloved mountains. He will be remembered forever.”
The German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said that Dahlmeier was “an ambassador of our country worldwide and a model to follow for a peaceful, cheerful and fair coexistence through the borders.”
Dahlmeier, an experienced mountaineer, represented Germany in two winter Olympic Games and won two gold medals and one bronze in Pyeongchang 2018.
She was the first woman to win the speed and persecution tests in the same games and won another 15 medals, including seven gold, in five world championships before retiring from the competition in May 2019.
