Andrea Huser, champion ultra runner, falls to death while crossing a stream during training
- Andrea Huser slips and falls 140m during a training run
- The Swiss ultra runner and mountain biker has been at the top of the sport for over a decade, picking up podiums across the world
Andrea Huser, one of the world’s top mountain ultra runners, has died after a fall in training. The Swiss runner was crossing a stream when she slipped and fell 140m, according to the police.
Huser, 46, has featured on the podium of the top races for almost a decade, and before that she was a world class mountain biker. In December 2017, she won the 162km Ultra-Trail Tai Mo Shan in Hong Kong, and said: “This race has everything you need! Such a hard race with steep climbs, lots of rolling flat roads between and technical trails with steep steps at the end.”
In 2017, she won the Ultra Trail World Tour and was presented the award in Hong Kong in January 2018.
A missing-person report was filed on Saturday to police in Bern, Switzerland, when Huser did not return from training, according to local newspaper 20 minuten. With the help of police from Valais, and after attempts to locate the runner through a wide-ranging search on Sunday, search dogs were used to find Huser’s body after a tip came in from a member of the public.
On Sunday afternoon, Huser’s body was found above Saas-Fee in the Oberi Schopfen area around midday.
Huser had been competing at the elite end of sport for almost two decades. In 2002, she was crowned European champion in mountain biking and finished fourth at the world championships in 2004. She supplemented her mountain biking with triathlons, then cross-country skiing.
It was around 2012 that Huser switched to ultra mountain running and went on to claim some of the highest awards in the sport.
Over the last eight years, Huser won the 101km Eiger Ultra Trail twice, was second at the 170km Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc twice, took top spot at 122km Lavaredo Ultra Trail.
