A professional freestyle skier died while shooting a commercial for the next big sports game from Ubisoft, Steep, after fighting for her life for four days in hospital.
Ubisoft is hard at work with their next big game, Steep, which is an alpine extreme sports game which lets players partake in extreme skiing, snowboarding, glidesuiting, and more. In preparation for the launch they decided to get some live-action commercials for it, but during the filming the worst possible thing that could happen happened, professional freestyler Matilda Rapaport was caught under snow in an avalanche during filming and later died from the injuries she sustained in the accident.
Reports first came in on July 14 that Rapaport had been rushed to a hospital in Santiago, Chile, after a skiing accident and had to be put in a coma.
An avalanche started while she was skiing down the mountain side alone while being filmed from a helicopter. The damages she sustained from the avalanche and being trapped under the snow for too long, were too severe. Matilda Rapaport died on July 18, only 30 years young.
It was previously speculated that she was down to Chile and working for her main sponsor Red Bull, but today Ubisoft confirmed to a Swedish news site, Expressen, that Rapaport was working for them on their upcoming game Steep:
"We are deeply saddened by the news of Matilda Rapaport's death. After a film production in Chile on Thursday, July 14 caught her in an avalanche. Despite the care and treatment days after, it was not possible to save her life.
Matilda's courage, passion and desire to share the sport she loved with the world was an inspiration to other athletes, and for all of us. This tragic incident has touched us deeply.
Our hearts and thoughts go out to her husband and all her other family during this difficult time."
Matilda Rapaport wasn't a stranger to avalanches, in 2014 in Alaska she got trapped in one as well and was well aware of the risks the sport she loved came with.
On behalf of the entire GameZone team, our thoughts and prayers are with the family of Matilda Rapaport during this difficult time.
