Nicolas Bochatay (August 27, 1964 – February 22, 1992) was a Swiss speed skier who died during the

1992 Winter Olympics ) , nations = 64 , athletes = 1,801 (1313 men, 488 women) , events = 57 in 6 sports (12 disciplines) , opening = 8 February 1992 , closing = 23 February 1992 , opened_by = President François Mitterrand , cauldron ...

. Bochatay was killed when he collided with a

snow grooming Snow grooming is the process of manipulating snow for recreational uses with a tractor, snowmobile, piste caterpillar, truck or snowcat towing specialized equipment. The process is used to maintain ski hills, cross-country ski trails and snowmob ...

vehicle on the morning of the speed skiing finals. He was the nephew of Olympic skier Fernande Bochatay.

Personal life

Bochatay, a

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, was twenty-seven years of age at the time of the accident. He was married and had two children. Fernande Bochatay, Nicolas' aunt, won the bronze medal in the women's

giant slalom Giant slalom (GS) is an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline. It involves skiing between sets of poles ("gates") spaced at a greater distance from each other than in slalom but less than in Super-G. Giant slalom and slalom make up t ...

during the

1968 Winter Olympics The 1968 Winter Olympics, officially known as the X Olympic Winter Games (french: Les Xes Jeux olympiques d'hiver), were a winter multi-sport event held from 6 to 18 February 1968 in Grenoble, France. Thirty-seven countries participated. Frenchm ...

held in

Grenoble lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Skiing

The 1991 Swiss Champion, Bochatay was among the best speed skiers. Speed skiing is a dramatic sport, with competitors flying down the slope at . At

Les Arcs Les Arcs () is a ski resort located in Savoie, France, in the Tarentaise Valley town of Bourg-Saint-Maurice. Initially created by Robert Blanc and Roger Godino, it is a part of the huge Paradiski system which is under ownership by Compagnie des A ...

, during the Albertville Games in 1992, Bochatay placed 13th in the men's race with a speed of . Speed skiing was a demonstration sport at the 1992 Games, thus Bochatay's death was not considered as part of the official competition.

Accident and death

Around 9:30 am on February 22, the next-to-last day of competition at the

, Bochatay was warming up with teammate Pierre Yves-Jorand and

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

team members Jeff Hamilton, Jimbo Morgan, and Dale Womack, when he crashed into a

Snowcat A snowcat (short for snow and caterpillar) is an enclosed-cab, truck-sized, fully tracked vehicle designed to move on snow. Major manufacturers are Pisten Bully (Germany), Prinoth (Italy) and Tucker (United States). Snow groomers A snow ...

used to groom snow on a public slope. The group was skiing and catching air on a bump in the slope. The group had made other runs on the trail. Nicholas was airborne before landing immediately in front of the groomer. It was reported that he died of internal injuries immediately after impact. According to organizers, the machine had flashing lights and a siren while it was sitting behind a small hill. The Swiss team said the machine had been immobile behind the hill and had no sirens or flashing lights. Jean-Albert Corrand, director general of COJO, was the one to say the snow groomer was using a siren and flashing lights and was moving uphill towards the skiers as they were coming down. Witnesses say also that the machine did have a siren and flashing lights. It was also said that Bochatay was wearing slalom skis and not speed-skis when he crashed. The accident occurred on the next-to-last day of the 1992 Winter Olympics, on the morning of the speed-skiing final. Bochatay was the third athlete to die at a Winter Olympics, after

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luger

Kazimierz Kay-Skrzypeski Kazimierz Kay-Skrzypecki (or Skrzypeski) (25 November 1905 – 22 January 1964John E. Findling, Kimberly D. Pelle, ''Encyclopedia of the Modern Olympic Movement'', Greenwood Press, 2004, , p. 346.) was a Polish-born British luge racer. Skr ...

and

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...

skier Ross Milne who both died at Innsbruck 1964.

References

1992 deaths Swiss male alpine skiers Olympic alpine skiers of Switzerland Skiing deaths Sport deaths in France 1964 births Olympic deaths Speed skiers at the 1992 Winter Olympics 20th-century Swiss people {{Switzerland-sport-bio-stub