Australia's double world champion snowboarder Alex Pullin has died while spearfishing off a Gold Coast beach, plunging the country's winter sports community into mourning.
Pullin, Australia's flagbearer at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, was found by a snorkeller on an artificial reef just before 11am local time on Wednesday in waters off Palm Beach, state broadcaster ABC reported.
Lifeguards and paramedics attempted to resuscitate the 32-year-old on the beach after pulling him from the water.
Another diver had found Pullin on the sea floor in "very upsetting" circumstances, said Gold Coast police district duty officer Chris Tritton.
💚💛 Vale @chumpypullin 💚💛
— AUS Olympic Team (@AUSOlympicTeam) July 8, 2020
Three-time Olympian, Australian Flagbearer at Sochi 2014 and two-time World Champion. An incredible athlete, beloved teammate and role model, you will be sorely missed.
Rest In Peace. pic.twitter.com/co9vxaQVdW
"He didn't have an oxygen mask, we understand he was freediving and spearfishing out on the reef," Tritton told broadcaster Channel Nine.
"It appears he was diving alone. There were other divers out there, but he was not with a friend.
The Courier-Mail earlier reported that Pullin was thought to have "suffered a shallow water blackout".
Pullin, nicknamed 'Chumpy', won world championship titles in snowboard cross in 2011 and 2013, competed at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver and placed sixth in his event at the Pyeongchang Games in South Korea two years ago.
"It is an incredibly sad day," Geoff Lipshut, the chief executive of the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia, told Reuters.
Lipshut said Pullin had retired from his sport last month but had yet to announce it.
"Alex 'Chumpy' Pullin was one of our great winter sports pioneers... He attacked every day with intensity and purpose," he said.
