German biathlete Laura Dahlmeier killed in mountaineering accident in Pakistan
Ms Dahlmeier, an Olympic gold medallist, was climbing the peak in the Karakoram mountain range on Monday when she was struck by falling rocks.
Local authorities launched the rescue mission after receiving a distress signal from the 31-year-old's climbing partner Marina Eva, who managed to descend to base camp with help from rescuers on Tuesday.
Ms Dahlmeier was injured at an altitude of about 18,700ft on Monday at noon local time, according to her management team in Germany.
Her body will be taken to the city of Skardu when it is retrieved by rescuers, Mr Faraq said.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier offered his condolences to Ms Dahlmeier's parents, writing that she 'was an exceptional sportswoman', and recalling that he presented her with the highest honour of German sport, the Silver Laurel Leaf, shortly after she won her first Olympic gold medal in 2018.
'Laura Dahlmeier was an ambassador for our country in the world, a role model for peaceful, cheerful and fair co-existence across borders,' he said.
She won the 2017 women's biathlon World Cup and took gold in the sprint and pursuit biathlon events at the 2018 Winter Olympics.
Ms Dahlmeier grew up in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in the German Alps and turned to mountaineering challenges after ending her biathlon career in 2019. She had been a state-certified mountain and ski guide since 2023 and volunteered for the Garmisch-Partenkirchen mountain rescue team.
Hundreds of climbers try to scale mountains in northern Pakistan every year and accidents are common because of avalanches and sudden weather changes.
The region has also been battered by above-normal seasonal rains, triggering flash floods and landslides. Since last week, at least 20 Pakistani tourists have been missing after floodwaters swept them away near the northern district of Chilas.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
6 minutes ago
- BBC News
Britain's Shriever wins third BMX world title
Great Britain's Beth Shriever won her third BMX world title as she triumphed at the 2025 World Championships in Olympic champion in Tokyo four years ago, crossed the line in 35.614 seconds to finish ahead of Australian Saya Sakakibara and Dutch rider Judy Rendall Todd took silver in the junior final in recovered from a bad start in her semi-final, Shriever led into the first corner in the final and pulled away to finish more than a second clear of Paris 2024 gold medallist Sakakibara."It feels absolutely incredible," said Shriever, 26."It's been a mad, mad day of racing. I scraped through the semi and just said this is all or nothing now. I'm gassed to take home the win."Shriever finished last in the Olympic final last summer but won her second European title this year before completing her world title team-mate Rendall Todd, 17, crossed the line in 38.401 secs for silver in the women's junior final, closely behind New Zealand's champion Lily Greenough, who clocked there was disappointment for Kye Whyte, the Tokyo Olympic silver medallist, after he was eliminated after finishing fifth in his quarter-final.
BBC News
36 minutes ago
- BBC News
McIntosh wins fourth gold, medley double for Marchand
Olympic champions Summer McIntosh and Leon Marchand claimed gold medals in the women's and men's 400m individual medley at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships in McIntosh won her fourth gold medal of the week as she finished more than seven seconds clear of silver medallist Jenna Forrester on Sunday with a championship record time of 4 minutes 25.78 this week, the 18-year-old took gold in the 400m freestyle, 200m butterfly and 200m medley, as well as bronze in the 800m freestyle on - who holds world records in both the 200m and 400m medley and the 400m freestyle - won three gold medals and a silver at her first Olympics last Britain's Freya Colbert came last after qualifying for the final as the eighth-best swimmer in the heats. Frenchman Marchand scraped through in the men's 400m medley heats with a sluggish performance, but recovered to win gold in 4:04:73 - almost four seconds ahead of silver medallist Tomoyuki 23-year-old Paris Games hero set a new world record in winning gold in the men's 200m individual medley on Thursday, but was two seconds shy of breaking the 400m world record he set at the 2023 World Litchfield finished seventh, capping a disappointing week for Team GB. Marchand later helped France take silver in the men's 4x100m medley relay, as Team GB finished USA set a new world record in the women's 4x100m medley relay with a time of 3:49.34, while Britain came was a gold medal for Tunisia's Ahmed Jaouadi in the men's 1500m freestyle, adding to the 20-year-old's triumph in the 800m freestyle earlier this silver medalist Meg Harris won the women's 50m freestyle, while Lithuania's Ruta Meilutyte retained her 50m breaststroke with a time of Kolesnikov won gold in the men's 50m backstroke with 23:68, though he fell more than a second short of the world record he set three years the final diving event of the week, Britain's Robbie Lee came 12th in the men's 10m platform as Cassiel Rousseau of Australia took gold. Brigh future for GB after tough week Great Britain enjoyed a difficult week in Singapore, winning just five medals, including one illness has caused issues in the camp, GB's performance director Chris Spice does not want that to be an excuse."We don't try to dwell on that. You only have to look at some of our relay selections in the last couple of days to see some of the people who might have been affected by that," he told BBC Sport."We're not staying close to other teams, we've tried to minimise the risk of transferring anything between teams."But of course you're in a heated environment with people all close to each other. It's natural that there is going to be some illness around. That's what it is. We just put our heads down and try and get on with it."There has been a lot of change both in the water and behind the scenes for British Swimming, something Spice felt contributed to an underwhelming week."We've had three British records here as opposed to two last year. Underneath the bonnet, things aren't bad," he added."We think we've got the best crop of juniors we've had in the last four or five years. Hopefully as we get towards LA [2028 Olympic Games], those two things will come together and the results will start to come."We've got a very young team, we've got eight people here at their first World Championships. There are a lot of newbies, there is a lot of learning going on. "There were missed opportunities this week, we left two or three medals on the table."We've got a new head coach, a new team manager. The head of sports science and medicine has gone across to diving. We're all learning about each other and need time to bed in."
BBC News
36 minutes ago
- BBC News
Packer free to play England's World Cup opener
Flanker Marlie Packer will not miss the start of England's home Women's Rugby World Cup after she was given a one-match ban for a red card against Spain on 35-year-old was sent off in the Red Roses' 97-7 World Cup warm-up win in Leicester for a clumsy clearout that caught the leg of full-back Claudia ban rules Packer out of England's final warm-up away to France on Saturday, before their World Cup opener against the United States in Sunderland on 22 victory over Spain was Packer's first game as captain since being replaced in the role by Zoe Aldcroft in captained the Red Roses to back-to-back Six Nations Grand Slams in 2023 and 2024 and is one of head coach John Mitchell's side are on a 26-game winning run and are favourites to become world champions, with their last defeat coming in the Word Cup final against New Zealand in who started England's World Cup final win in 2014, still faces tough competition to start the World Cup opener in the back Feaunati, 23, started instead of Packer for the Six Nations Grand Slam decider against France in April, while Sadia Kabeya, 23, has also played ahead of her.
