BENGALURU: Olympic cross-country skiing gold medallist Vibeke Skofterud has died aged 38 following a jet-skiing accident, the Norwegian Ski Federation confirmed on Monday.
The Norwegian Skofterud was reported missing on Saturday and her body was found by a rescue team on Sunday near the island of St Helena in southern Norway, the BBC reported.
“It’s an unthinkable tragedy that our life-loving Vibeke is gone. Our thoughts go to Vibeke’s family and her closest,” national team director Vidar Lofshus said.
Skofterud won the 4×5 kilometre cross-country skiing relay gold at the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010 and was twice world champion – in 2005 and 2011 – in the discipline.
She finished on the podium 15 times at world cup events before her retirement in 2015.