The Australian winter sports community has been rocked with a second sudden death in as many weeks as reports of figure skater Ekaterina Alexandrovskaya’s death in Russia on Friday (local time), after the recent loss of snowboarder Alex Chumpy Pullin.
The Russian born skater represented Australia at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics in 2018 with skating partner Harley Windsor, Australia’s first indigenous athlete to compete at a Winter Olympics.
Together they claimed two Australian titles, gold at the World Junior Championships in 2017 and won the Junior Grand Prix Final in Nagoya, also in 2017 – the first champions from Australia ever.
Russian media are reporting Alexandrovskaya fell from a sixth floor window in Moscow. Her Australian skating partner, Windsor has posted a heart felt tribute on Instagram this evening.
The pair were the first Australian figure skaters in ten years to compete in pairs at Olympic level for Australia. They finished 18th at the PyeongChang games.
Alexandrovskaya had retired last year due to injury issues.
More to come.
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