20-year-old Olympic figure skater Ekaterina Alexandrovskaya dies in Moscow; athletics community in mourning

With the sudden death of Russia-born Olympic figure skater Ekaterina Alexandrovskaya at the tender age of 20, the winter sports community in Australia has moved into mourning.

The Australian Olympic Committee on Saturday confirmed that the 20-year-old Alexandrovskaya had died after Russian media reported that she fell out of a sixth-floor window in central Moscow.

Former #figureskating world junior champion Ekaterina Alexandrovskaya dies aged 20.https://t.co/f0eMWmKWeN

— Olympic Channel (@olympicchannel) July 18, 2020

According to media reports, the young figure skater had left behind a note which read "I love" in Russian, suggesting that her death could have been due to suicide.

Alexandrovskaya's coach, Andrei Khekalo, told news agency AFP that she had missed a training session in January and was later diagnosed with epilepsy, leading her to quit the sport. Ever since then, she was said to have been suffering from depression.

Ekaterina Alexandrovskaya had competed in pairs with Harley Windsor, Australia's first indigenous athlete to compete in a Winter Olympics, at the 2018 PyeongChang Games in South Korea.

Alexandrovskaya and Windsor finished 18th in Pyeongchang. They were World Junior Champions and World Junior Grand Prix Champions in 2017.

"It is enormously sad to lose Katia who was a vibrant and talented person and an incredible athlete," AOC Vice President Ian Chesterman, who was the team's chef de mission in PyeongChang, said in a statement.

Alexandrovskaya is the second Australian Winter Olympian to die suddenly this month after snowboarder Alex Pullin drowned while spearfishing off a Gold Coast beach on July 8.