(CNN) — Former world champion snowboarder Julie Pomagalski has died in an avalanche at the age of 40.
Pomagalski was killed on Tuesday morning in Uri canton, Switzerland, a spokesperson from the French Ministry for Sports told CNN via email Thursday.
She was descending the Gemsstock mountain along with three other people at the time of the accident, the spokesperson said. A guide, Bruno Cutelli, also died in the avalanche.
Local police in Uri canton published a statement confirming the death of two unidentified individuals in an avalanche Tuesday.
The two were “completely buried” by snow. “For them, any help came too late,” said police in the statement. A third person was slightly injured.
Pomagalski was a teenager when she became the world champion in snowboard cross in 1999. She won the Snowboard World Cup in 2004.
She represented France at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City in 2002 and Turin, Italy, in 2006, competing in the parallel giant slalom. She placed sixth both times.
Pomagalski lived in the ski town of Meribel, where she ran a sports shop and a ski school, said the sports ministry spokesperson.
She was the granddaughter of Jean Pomagalski, founder of Poma, which manufactures ski lifts.
In much of the United States, “poma” is the generic term for a type of lift that was the company’s first product — a surface lift that pulls skiers up a slope with a disc between their legs.
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