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Cavagnoud dead Skiing champion dies from training crash injuries
Updated: Wednesday October 31, 2001 11:25 AM
VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- World super-G skiing champion Regine Cavagnoud died Wednesday at an Innsbruck hospital of head injuries sustained two days earlier in a training-run collision with a German ski coach. Cavagnoud, 31, was surrounded by her family when the respirator keeping her alive was switched off, said Dr. Wolfgang Koller, the head of the trauma intensive care unit at the Innsbruck University Clinic. "Yesterday in the evening and today in the morning, we made final examinations that made it very clear that the brain of Regine Cavagnoud was not working at all," Koller told The Associated Press.
Though she suffered severe brain injuries in the collision, Cavagnoud's brain was partly functioning when she was flown by helicopter to the hospital after Monday's accident, Koller said. Her condition worsened as brain swelling compounded the existing injuries, he said. The death of the French woman was the first fatality involving a World Cup skier since Austria's Ulrike Maier died in 1994 after crashing into a post in a World Cup downhill race in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. "French sport has lost one of its great champions today," said French President Jacques Chirac in a letter of condolence to Cavagnoud's parents. "Regine has made her mark on world skiing with her boundless generosity and her unusual courage in the face of difficulties." French Sports Minister Marie-George Buffet, quoted on LCI television, said she felt "immense sadness" upon hearing about the death and called for investigators to determine what caused the accident. The accident on the Pitztal glacier happened Monday when Cavagnoud rammed into German trainer Markus Anwander as he crossed her path on the slope. German and French ski officials said Tuesday communication problems between their teams led to the accident. A spokesman for the Austrian prosecutor, who is investigating the accident, said Anwander could be responsible for the accident. "He arrived on the track and was the cause of what happened," said the spokesman, Rudolf Koll. Sonja Reichen, spokeswoman for the International Ski Federation, described the collision as "a very sad accident and we all feel very, very sorry." She added the federation has nothing to do with safety matters at private training sessions such as the one Monday. Anwander was seriously injured and was undergoing spinal surgery Wednesday, Koller said. Though his condition had improved, his life was still at risk, he said. "There is still a slight risk" that Anwander will die of his injuries, he said. "The risk gets smaller as time goes by." Several national ski teams are training on Austrian glaciers at the start of the World Cup season. Cavagnoud won last season's super-G World Cup and was third overall in the World Cup standings. She has long been a strong competitor in the downhill and giant slalom. Cavagnoud's career had been plagued by injuries. She finally won a race in her 10th year of competition, a downhill in January 1999. The win broke a 17-year drought by French women in the speed discipline. On Sunday, she finished third after an excellent second run in the season's opening World Cup in Soelden, Austria. Prime Minister Lionel Jospin expressed his deep sadness. "Regine Cavagnoud embodied passion for skiing, courage in the face of adversity and determined effort," he said. "France has lost one of its great sportspeople, a courageous, unassuming and cheerful young woman who wanted to fight until the last moment." Jean-Luc Cretier, the French downhill Olympic champion at the 1998 Nagano Games, told RTL radio that Cavagnoud was a great champion whose death came as a result of her dedication to skiing. "She died for her work, because of her work," he said. "It is
always the best who go first."
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