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Pavel Karelin, the 21-year-old leader of the Russian national ski jumping team, died in a car crash early on Sunday, his personal coach said.
Police said Karelin died in the early hours when his Mercedes collided with another vehicle on a motorway near Nizhny Novgorod, on a highway linking Moscow and the Urals city of Ufa, some 570 kilometres east of the Russia's capital.
«The tragedy happened in the morning. His airbags failed. Pavel died, while his two friends who were with him in the car are in a grave state. I’m going to Nizhny Novgorod now,» Alexander Svyatov, the coach of the 21-year-old athlete, told Sports.ru.
A deputy head of Russia's Federation of Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined, Vladimir Slavsky, said Pavel "either fell asleep or lost control of the vehicle" and died when his car swerved off the highway.
"Pavel Karelin's tragic death is a huge and irreplaceable loss for Russian sport," the country's ski jumping federation said in a statement.
Karelin was a several-times champion of Russian competitions. He had competed regularly on the World Cup circuit. His best result was second place in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in January. He took part in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, finishing 10th in the team competition and 33rd in the individual event.
Author: Julia Alieva
