Professional extreme skier Matilda Rapaport passed away at 30 years old after being caught in an avalanche while filming a promo for Ubisoft’s new extreme sports game, Steep.
Her sponsor Red Bull released a statement to The Guardian, revealing that the avalanche occurred near the resort town of Farellones in the Andes mountains in Chile.
She was taken to a hospital, but sadly died there after suffering from brain damage and oxygen deprivation.
Ubisoft also issued a statement:
We are deeply saddened to learn the death of Matilda Rapaport, the remarkable Swedish freeskiing athlete. During a video production in Chile on Thursday, July 14th, Matilda was caught in an avalanche. Despite the medical care and treatment over the subsequent days, it was not possible to save her life. Matilda’s courage, passion, and desire to share the sport she loved with the world served as an inspiration for other athletes and for us all. This tragic accident has deeply touched us. Our hearts and prayers go out to her husband and her wider family at this difficult time.
Rapaport was caught in an avalanche once before, in Alaska in 2014. To her credit, she chose to learn from that experience and get back to doing what she loved to do.
Rapaport was featured in a number of skiing movies, such as Pure and Shades of Winter. She’ll also make an appearance in the upcoming film, Between.
You can read Red Bull’s own tribute to Rapaport here. Our thought go out to her family and friends at this difficult time.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.