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Professional skier Jean Daniel Pession and his girlfriend, Elisa Arlian, died after falling from Monte Zerbion in Italy.
The Italian Winter Sports Federation announced the couple died Saturday while on a hike (via TMZ Sports).
Their families grew concerned when they hadn't yet returned from the hike and contacted the local authorities.
Rai News (via Owen Lavine of the Daily Beast) reported emergency personnel eventually found Pession, 28, and Arlian, 26, after hours of searching. Their cellphone signals were used to help identify the general area where they had fallen, and they were discovered not far away from the summit.
Pession, who specialized in speed skiing, competed in five FIS World Cup events across 2021 and 2022. His best finish came in March 11, 2021 in Idrefiäll, Sweden, when he placed 11th.
Dalilah Sappenfield, the U.S. Olympic pairs figure skating coach, received a lifetime ban from the U.S. Center for SafeSport on Wednesday for violations that include emotional and physical misconduct, per Christine Brennan of USA Today.
In October 2021, Brennan published a detailed report on abuse allegations against Sappenfield from 2016 U.S. pairs champion Tarah Kayne.
As part of the allegations she reported to a SafeSport investigator, Kayne detailed an instance "in which the coach's constant verbal abuse, filled with sexual comments, led her to cut her left wrist with a razor blade in the summer of 2019 in her dorm room at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado."
"She was constantly talking about sex, about who I was dating, about my sex life," Kayne said at the time. "It was completely inappropriate, but that's what Dalilah does. She uses gossip from other skaters in the rink against you. She knew I was struggling with my mental health, but instead of helping me, she chose to make fun of me. She even went to other skaters and told them about it, calling me names and asking the guys why anyone would want to date me."
Kayne was one of several skaters to file complaints against Sappenfield with SafeSport nearly three years ago. Sappenfield was suspended pending further investigation and barred from "having any contact with a dozen figure skaters and from coaching other athletes without another adult present to supervise."
Sappenfield had worked as a coach since 1993 and was the recipient of the 2008 Professional Skaters Association/U.S. Figure Skating Coach of the Year award. She coached three-time national champions Alexa and Chris Knierim to a qualifying spot in the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea.
It was a great day to be an American during Saturday's action at the ISU World Figure Skating World Championships.
The events of the day in Montreal were the Ice Dance and the Men's Free Skate. The U.S. had winners in each event.
The Ice Dance went to the team of Madison Chock and Evan Bates, who defended their title from a year ago and completed an undefeated season.
Chock and Bates scored 222.2 points to take home the top prize. Chock reflected on finishing the season on a positive note and working through adversity within the routine.
"It was incredibly fun to perform today. We're so happy to finish the season with a strong skate. We're so happy to be in our adopted hometown of Montreal," Chock said, per the ISU website. "Even on that first misstep on the first lift we just got back into it. We put so much into the program and it's come so far this season. We're proud to deliver what we practiced. The improvements we made to the program after Nationals really elevated the program."
Bates credited the crowd with providing him and Chock with the push they needed, and was proud for how hard the duo worked to earn the accomplishment.
"You could hear the energy of the crowd right over the boards and they were really with us," Bates said, per the ISU. "We left it all there on the ice and did everything we could, so we're satisfied and fulfilled with the effort."
The Canadian team of Piper Gillies and Paul Poirier finished second with a score of 219.68, while the Italian duo of Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri finished third with a score of 216.52.
The U.S. success continued in the later event, with American Ilia Malinin taking first with a score of 333.76. Yuma Kagiyama of Japan finished second with a score of 309.65 and Adam Siao Him Fa of France took third with a score of 284.39.
The event has its finale Sunday, with the feature presentation being the exhibition gala.
Japan's Kaori Sakamoto made history Friday during Day 3 of the 2024 ISU World Figure Skating Championships.
Sakamoto rallied from a fourth-place short program finish to win her third straight world title, becoming the first woman to three-peat as singles champion since 1968.
Before the women's free skate, the ice dance competition began Friday in Montreal. Here are the day's leaderboards, as well as a breakdown of the Day 3 results.
Find the full leaderboard at isuresults.com.
Find the full leaderboard at isuresults.com.
Ice Dance Rhythm Dance
The reigning world ice dance champions, Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates, took first place Friday after the rhythm dance competition.
Chock and Bates are hoping to complete their 13th season together with an undefeated record.
They're off to a good start after scoring 90.08 Friday. That's the highest ice dance score in the world this season, per NBC Sports.
The duo, who last year became the oldest couple in ice dance history to win a world title, are set to get married this summer. This could potentially be their last season, they told Nick McCarvel of Olympics.com in February.
Two Canadian pairs wowed the home crowd Friday as Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, as well as Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha, finished in the top five.
Gilles has successfully made her return to the world stage after missing most of last season due to a diagnosis of ovarian cancer. She and Poirier are two-time world bronze medalists.
Lajoie and Lagha, who won the World Junior Figure Skating Championships in 2019, are meanwhile hoping to earn their first world medal.
Women's Free Skate
Sakamoto became the first woman to win three consecutive world individual titles since Peggy Fleming thanks to Friday's free skate.
Her performance earned her an 11-point lead in the event, enough to lift lift her to the top of the podium after Wednesday's fourth-place short program finish.
"I was fourth in the short program, so I was a little anxious about that, but today I was in a really good place emotionally," Sakamoto said after the free skate, per McCarvel for Olympics.com. "And the intention was suitable: I was able to perform my elements one by one, so I'm happy with the result."
A pair of 17-year-olds rounded out the podium as American Isabeau Levito took home the silver medal and Korea's Kim Chae-yeon claimed bronze.
Levito is the first American to win silver in the world championships since Ashley Wagner in 2016, per NBC Sports. No American woman has won the individual title since Kimmie Meissner in 2006.
The competitive portion of the 2024 ISU World Figure Skating Championships wraps up Saturday with the ice dance free dance at 1:30 p.m. ET, followed by the men's free skate at 6 p.m. ET. Find the full broadcast schedule here.
The 2024 ISU World Figure Skating Championships continued Thursday in Montreal with the Men's Short Program and Pairs Free Skate.
Japan's Shoma Uno came one step closer to a third consecutive world title during the Men's Short Program, while Canada's Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps made history in the Pairs Free Skate.
Find a breakdown of Thursday's results below.
Full leaderboard available at isuresults.com.
Full leaderboard available at isuresults.com.
Reigning world champion Shoma Uno, who took home first place in 2022 and 2023, could be on track for a third consecutive title after finishing the men's short program with the lead.
Uno skated to a medley from the movie Everything Everywhere All at Once choreographed by 2006 Olympic silver medalist Stephane Lambiel, Nick McCarvel of Olympics.com reported.
It's already been a historic season for Uno, who in December won his sixth career national title in Japan.
Now he could become the first man to win three consecutive world titles since Patrick Chan in 2013.
Short program runners-up Japan's Yuma Kagiyama and American Ilia Malinin, like Uno, performed clean skates with two quadruple jumps apiece, per NBC Sports.
With a spread of less than two points between the three leaders, the men's championship will come down to the free skate Sunday.
Kagiyama, a silver medalist at the 2022 Olympics, is looking to complete his comeback from the left leg and ankle injuries that cut short his 2022-23 season.
Meanwhile Malinin, the only skater to ever land a quad Axel in competition, could attempt his signature jump during the competition's finale.
Canada's Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps came narrowly in second place Thursday with a 144.08 score in the free skate.
Luckily, they had a 3.95-point cushion over the defending champions, Japan's Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara, after Wednesday's short program.
That made Thursday's free skate enough to earn the Canadian duo the world pairs title in front of the home crowd in Montreal.
Stellato-Dudek, 40, is now the oldest woman to win gold in any figure skating competition, according to NBC Sports.
Miura and Kihara meanwhile followed up their 2023 title with a silver medal. They earned a standing ovation Wednesday after performing to Cirque du Soleil's "Oxygène" in a short program dedicated to Montreal, according to the Associated Press.
The World Figure Skating Championships continue Friday with the Ice Dance Rhythm Dance competition at 11:20 a.m. ET, followed by the Women's Free Skate at 6:00 p.m. ET. Find the full live stream schedule here.
It was a great day for some figure skating on Wednesday in Montreal.
The pairs short program and women's short program were on the slate, and the pairs program had some hometown stars take first place.
The Canadian pair of Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps took first place with a score of 77.48. Stellato-Dudek said that the pair felt like the performance went smoothly and that they are looking forward to building off the gained momentum.
"We were really happy with how the short program went and we look forward to the long tomorrow, by keeping up with the same momentum," Stellato Dudek said, per the International Skating Union. "I need to stay calm. I tend to over-try and that never works. So we just need to stay calm and do what we do every day."
Deschamps reflected on the experience and the chance to represent his country on home soil.
"It was special," Deschamps said, per the ISU "We came here (to the arena) two weeks ago practicing, and we took so many pictures on the ice on the (Canadian) logo. So it's very special."
Riki Miura and Ryuich Kihara of Japan took second place and Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii of Italy placed third. The highest finishing American duo was Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea, who finished 10th.
The Women's short program saw Loena Hendrickx of Belarus finish first with a score of 76.98. Isabeau Levito of the U.S. finished second and Haein Lee of South Korea finished third.
These results were just from Day 1 of the competition and plenty lies ahead. On the slate for Thursday will be the men's short program and the pairs free skate.
Defending champion Ilia Malinin has claimed his second consecutive U.S. figure skating title.
Malinin led by 29.85 points over two-time Olympic champion Jason Brown to claim a gold medal Sunday at the 2024 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Columbus, Ohio.
In September 2022 Malinin became the first figure skater to land a clean and fully rotated quadruple Axel in competition.
On Sunday the skater, whose Instagram handle includes the nickname "quadg0d," included the signature four-and-a-half rotation jump during Sunday's free skate on his way to a gold medal.
Here's a look at the results and highlights from the final day of nationals.
Full results available at usfigureskating.org.
Malinin fell during his free skate, but his lead was never in question. That's thanks to a historic lead after the short program.
The champion led by 18.85 points heading into Sunday, breaking a U.S. Figure Skating Championships short program record set by Olympic champion Nathan Chen.
He didn't attempt a quad Axel during the short, but landed his trademark move during the free skate.
Jason Brown's place on the podium was less assured. The 2015 U.S. national champion headed into the free skate in third place.
After a 264.50 free skate, Brown earned silver behind Malinin's gold for the second consecutive championship.
Next up is the 2024 World Figure Skating Championships in Montreal, Canada from March 18 to 24.
Malinin, currently ranked the world No. 1, will seek to follow Nathan Chen and Dick Button as the third-youngest worlds winner in competition history.
