Nikola Zoricic (19 February 1983 – 10 March 2012) was a Bosnian

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

ski cross Ski cross is a skiing competition which incorporates terrain features traditionally found in freestyle skiing with courses which include big-air jumps and high-banked turns. In spite of the fact that it is a timed racing event, it is often cons ...

skier who died following a severe crash during the eighth-finals of a World Cup event in

Grindelwald Grindelwald is a village and Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Interlaken-Oberhasli (administrative district), Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Bern (canton), Berne. In addition ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

Life and career

Zoricic was born in

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its a ...

, SR Bosnia-Herzegovina,

SFR Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yug ...

. He grew up in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

after emigrating to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

with his family at the age of five. As is common among ski-cross athletes, Zoricic was an alpine ski racer before taking up ski-cross. In December 1998, he was No. 1 ranked in the world in slalom for his age group. Zoricic started his first

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

race in Park City and scored his first top 10 finish at the Nor-Am Cup in Colorado. During the 2003–04 and 2004–05 seasons, he competed in four World Cup slaloms but was never able to advance past the first round of competition. For several years, he tried in vain to compete with the world's best slalom skiers but injuries did not let him to move up the ranking. In 2008 he decided to switch to freestyle skiing instead. Zoricic made his ski-cross debut at the Freestyle World Cup on 19 January 2009 in Lake Placid, finishing in 61st. He earned his first World Cup points on 24 February of that year when he finished 15th at Branäs, Sweden. During the 2009–10 season, he failed to qualify for the

2010 Winter Olympics )'' , nations = 82 , athletes = 2,626 , events = 86 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = February 12, 2010 , closing = February 28, 2010 , opened_by = Governor General Michaëlle Jean , cauldron = Catriona Le May DoanNancy GreeneWayne Gretz ...

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

. Zoricic's greatest success came in the 2010–11 season. That year, he was never ranked lower than eighth and made his first World Cup podium on 7 January 2011 by finishing second at St. Johann in

Tyrol Tyrol (; historically the Tyrole; de-AT, Tirol ; it, Tirolo) is a historical region in the Alps - in Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Emp ...

. A year later, on 15 January 2012, he finished third in the World Cup race at

Les Contamines-Montjoie Les Contamines-Montjoie () is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France. Etymology The original name of the village, ''Les Contamines,'' is from the word ''contamines'', which in the an ...

Death

At the World Cup race on 10 March 2012 in

, Switzerland, Zoricic crashed hard head first into netting lining the course after going wide and falling on the final jump. He was knocked unconscious, suffered severe skull and brain trauma and was airlifted to a hospital in

Interlaken , neighboring_municipalities= Bönigen, Därligen, Matten bei Interlaken, Ringgenberg, Unterseen , twintowns = Scottsdale (USA), Ōtsu (Japan), Třeboň (Czech Republic) Interlaken (; lit.: ''between lakes'') is a Swiss town and mun ...

where he was later pronounced dead. After his death there has been much controversy over the possible avoidance of his death. Swiss police have said the tragedy was a sporting accident and not due to any flaw in the ski course. Zoricic's family and some racers suggest there were a number of issues with the final jump and the course finish. Zoricic's family threatened to sue the International Ski Federation and Alpine Canada if they refuse to launch an independent investigation.

References

External links

Nic Zoricic Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zoricic, Nick 1983 births 2012 deaths Canadian male freestyle skiers Canadian people of Bosnia and Herzegovina descent Canadian people of Serbian descent Filmed deaths in sports Skiing deaths Sport deaths in Switzerland Sportspeople from Sarajevo Skiers from Toronto Yugoslav emigrants to Canada