Post by Admin on Jul 12, 2020 18:56:32 GMT
World champion short-track speed skater Lara van Ruijven died on Friday as a result of complications from an autoimmune reaction, the Netherlands skating association said. Van Ruijven was 27.
She died in a hospital in the French city of Perpignan, where she had been in a critical condition for days.
She last year became the first Dutch short-track skater to win a world title when she won the 500-meter title in Sofia, Bulgaria.
“What terrible news we've just received. The loss will be felt in the sport world,” national coach Jeroen Otter said.
Herman de Haan, director of the national skating body, added: “It's incomprehensible that she has been taken from us while in the prime of her life."
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FILE - In this Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020 file photo, silver medal winning Lara van Ruijven smiles, during the medal ceremony of the women's 1,000m race of the ISU European Short Track Speed Skating Championships in Debrecen, Hungary. Dutch world champion short-track speedskater Lara van Ruijven died Friday, July 10, 2020 as a result of a complications from an autoimmune reaction, the national skating organization said. Van Ruijven was 27. (Zsolt Czegledi/MTI via AP, File)