The Winter Olympics neared their end on a somber note Saturday with the death of a Swiss speed skier who slammed into a snow removal machine shortly before he was to compete.
Nicholas Bochatay, 27, died instantly on the slopes near Les Arcs after being struck by a slow-moving tractor grooming the ski trails. Bochatay was warming up on a public slope near the competition site."He was skiing very fast and came over a small hill just as a snowmobile was crossing in front of him," said Jean Francois Meunier, the speed skiing press chief. "He was unable to avoid it and he died straight away."
Speed skiing, a daredvil sport in which competitors rush down the mountain at speeds approaching 140 mph, is a demonstration event at these Games. Some 10,000 spectators showed up for Saturday's finals, most unaware of the tragedy.
"We made no announcement," Meunier said. "I don't think that they knew anything about it."
Juan Antonio Samaranch, president of International Olympic Committee, and Jean-Claude Killy, co-chairman of the organizing committee, went to the scene to express their condolences to Bochatay's family.