Swiss Olympic Snowboarder Ueli Kestenholz Dies In Avalanche

2026-01-13 02:09:45

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) Swiss snowboarder Ueli Kestenholz, bronze medallist at the 1998 Olympic Games in Nagano, died on Saturday when he was swept away by an avalanche in Valais. This was confirmed by Swiss-Ski in a statement on Tuesday. This content was published on January 13, 2026 - 17:04 2 minutes Keystone-SDA

Italiano it Snowboarder Ueli Kestenholz, bronzo olimpico, muore sotto valanga Original Read more: Snowboarder Ueli Kestenholz, bronzo olimpico, muore sotto va

+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

The accident took place in the Lötschental, on the eastern slope of the Hockuchriz, at an altitude of about 2,400 metres, a police note specifies, adding that there was also a skier at the scene who managed to save himself. Kestenholz, 50, was rescued by rescuers and transported by helicopter to hospital, first in Visp and then in Sion, where he died.

In 1998, Kestenholz made it onto the podium in the first snowboarding competition in Olympic history: the parallel giant slalom, Swiss-Ski said. During his competitive career, he also participated in the 2002 Olympics in alpine snowboarding.

He also claimed two gold medals in snowboardcross at the 2003 and 2004 X Games, and had a total of 14 World Cup victories. He had also been one of the pioneers of this same discipline at the 2006 Olympics in Turin.

After retiring from competitive sport in 2006, Kestenholz remained a professional athlete. He was a freerider, speedrider, paraglider pilot, kitesurfer, skydiver, surfer, wingfoiler, mountain biker, Swiss-Ski said, paying tribute to him and offering its condolences to his family and loved ones.“Swiss-Ski and the snowboard community are devastated.”

+ Majority of fatal ski accidents happen off-piste

Adapted from Italian by AI/ts

We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.

Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.

If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at ...
External Content Related Stories Popular Stories N
In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo certified by the Journalism Trust Initiati

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at ....

MENAFN13012026000210011054ID1110593852

Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.