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French former snowboard world champion dies in avalanche

Julie Pomagalski was swept away while skiing off-piste in a group of four in the Swiss Alps.

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Julie Pomagalski, France's former world champion snowboarder, has been killed in an avalanche in Switzerland, the French Olympic Committee (CNOSF) has announced, reports the BBC.

Pomagalski, 40, was swept away while skiing off-piste in a group of four in the canton of Uri, officials said.

Another French freeride snowboarder was also killed in the avalanche.

Pomagalski was a teenager when she became world champion in snowboard cross in 1999.

She took the World Cup title for the discipline in 2004 and registered nine wins on the World Cup circuit. In 2002 she competed in the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics and four years later in the Turin Games.

Read more of this report from the BBC.