Kyle Smaine announced a few days ago via social media that he was going from California to Japan to go skiing in the mountains. The American skier was looking forward to “snow of unbelievable quality”. Unfortunately, the trip turned out to be unlucky. The 2015 world champion was buried by an avalanche.
Kyle Smaine is dead. An avalanche took him in the Japanese mountains
On Sunday, near Norikur Peak, about 50 kilometers from Nagano, a group of five skiers from the US and Austria were swept away by an avalanche. Three men managed to get down the mountain. Unfortunately, two died on the spot. One of them was Kyle Smaine, who eight years ago became world champion in halfpipe freestyle skiing. The US Embassy in Tokyo confirmed the tragic news.
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One of the witnesses of the event was a friend of the skier – Grant Gunderson. In an entry on Instagram, he described the course of the unfortunate accident. It shows that Smaine was first thrown about 50 meters by a gust of air and then covered with snow. He died on the spot. The second victim is a skier from Austria.
Smaine made his international debut in 2009. Then, during the World Cup competition in Park City, he took the 11th place. In 2015 he became the world champion in the halfpipe in the Alpine Kreischberg. He left professional sport in February 2018. Since then, he often went to the mountains for recreation, which he willingly shared via Instagram. An American would have turned 32 in June.
Source: Sport.PL
Tristin is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his in-depth and engaging writing on sports. He currently works as a writer at 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the sports industry.
