Former Bronze medal Olympic snowboarder Ueli Kestenholz has died at age 50 after becoming trapped in an avalanche while snowboarding with a friend in Switzerland, the Swiss Ski Federation confirmed on Tuesday, January 13.
Kestenholz won the Bronze in snowboard giant slalom at the 1998 Nagano Olympics, the first year the sport was included in the games.
“We extend our deepest condolences to Ueli’s family and loved ones,” Swiss Ski president Peter Barandun said in a press release.
The avalanche occurred on Sunday, January 11 when a snowboarder, whom the Valais, Switzerland police did not identify as Kestenholz, and his friend, identified only as a skier, were on the eastern slope of the Hockuchriz mountain at approximately 7,900 feet. The cause of the avalanche is still unknown.
Police say the skier was able to “get himself to safety” but the snowboarder became buried. The friend and rescue workers were eventually able to free him, but he had been injured, and he was transported via helicopter to a hospital in Visp, and later a hospital in Sion, where he died.
The incident is currently under investigation by the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Kestenholz was a three-time Olympian, returning to the winter games in 2002 and 2006 before retiring from Olympic competition. He also won Gold medals in snowboard cross at the 2003 and 2004 X Games.
Swiss Ski hailed Kestenholz as a “true crossover athlete,” who was also a surfer, skydiver, mountain biker, skier and more.
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He told Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger in 2023 that snowboarding provided more freedom than skiing, and in 2006, he changed his focus to freeride snowboarding, which took him to more natural terrain rather than pre-established trails.
“Skiing came with obligations; there were training times you had to stick to, marked courses you had to follow,” he said. “Snowboarding, on the other hand, was pure freedom. On a slope where a skier made twenty turns, I, as a snowboarder, would carve three wide, fast turns and spray snow meters high. I chose how I wanted to ride.”
“I skateboarded, I was a windsurfer, but I only skied in the winter, and on two planks,” he added in an interview with Swiss media company Tamedia two years ago. “Snowboarding offered the opportunity to experience my favorite feeling, gliding sideways, even in winter.”
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He added, “In the fall, we trained on the glacier at the same time as the skiers. They had to be back at the hotel by 9 p.m., and lights out was at 10 p.m. We set off at that time—and were back by 4 a.m.”
Kestenholz’s Instagram page shows that, even at age 50, he remained a frequent participant in a variety of extreme sports.
“To enjoy those rare moments when nature‘s wonders align you need to be ready to drop everything and go!” he wrote in the caption of a Thursday, January 8 video showing him paragliding. “Now it‘s snowing and this perfect black ice will be gone.”
Days before, he shared videos of himself parakiting, a sport that blends paragliding and kiteboarding, and wingfoiling, which is a wind-propelled water sport.
