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Camille Muffat had won the gold medal for France at the 2012 Olympics, when the swimmer set an Olympic record in the 400 m freestyle.
She was only 22 years old at the London Olympics. On Monday, her triumph was showed again and again by French media, after news emerged that Camille Muffat and seven other athletes died in a helicopter crash.
They were filming a reality TV show in Argentina. Champion sailor Florence Arthaud and Olympic boxer Alexis Vastine were also among the victims. The French athletes perished while filming an episode for the survivalist program “Dropped”.
The show involves contestants being left on their own in the wilderness and using their survival instincts and skill to find their way back to civilization.
Muffat only joined the reality show two weeks ago. She had retired from swimming last year, after a dispute with her coach, and since then she had participated in various events.
The accident happened while the helicopter was flying near Villa Castelli, more than 700 miles northwest of the Argentinian capital of Buenos Aires.
According to Cesar Angulo, the Secretary of Security of the region where the helicopter crashed, it is believed that they collided and after that a big explosion followed. The Argentine pilots also died in the accident, which happened near the place where the versions of the show for Switzerland and Denmark were also filmed. The causes of the crash are still unknown.
Florence Arthaud, 57, who was nicknamed “Fiancee of the Atlantic”, was the first famous women in the world of sailing. In 1990 she broke the record for the fastest solitary crossing of the North Atlantic ocean.
Another victim of Monday’s crash, Alexis Vastine, 28, won a bronze medal at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing at the 60-64 kilogram category. His loss in the semifinal with Manuel Felix Diaz was surrounded by controversy.
French Sports Minister Thierry Braillard said that “the whole French sport is in mourning” after the loss of “three huge champions”.
It is the second tragedy in two years for a show aired by French station TF1. In April 2013 the medic who was responsible for the contestants’ health in the running show Koh-Lanta committed suicide after one of the athletes died. The competitor had complained of heart pains during one of the tests of the show.
Image Source: Master Swim
