MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Australia’s double world champion snowboarder Alex Pullin drowned while spear fishing off a Gold Coast beach on Wednesday, state media reported.
Pullin was in waters off Palm Beach in southern Queensland on Wednesday morning, local media reported.
“The 32-year-old Aussie snowboarder was found by a snorkeller on an artifical reef just before 11 a.m. Investigations into his death are continuing,” the ABC said on its Twitter feed.
Brisbane-based newspaper the Courier-Mail said Pullin was thought to have “suffered a shallow water blackout” just after 10:30 a.m. local time (0030 GMT).
“Lifeguards provided CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) to the man until the Queensland Ambulance Service arrived and took over,” a local government official said in a statement.
A Queensland Police spokesman confirmed a man had drowned but declined to name him.
Pullin won world championship titles in snowboard cross in 2011 and 2013, and was the flag bearer for Australia’s Winter Olympics team at the 2014 Sochi Games.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
