First female snowboard champ dies Karine Ruby, the world's first female snowboarding champion, has died in a tragic accident on Mont Blanc.
The 31-year-old former French Olympic champion was found in a crevasse along with French climber Simone Ouest following a climbing fall.
Snowboarding was contested for the first time in the Olympics in 1998. Ruby won the inaugural women's event, the giant slalom, after victories in all but one of the eight pre-Olympic World Cup competitions.
She also participated in the Salt Lake City Games in 2002 where she took the silver. Ruby won six snowboard world champion titles before retiring from the sport in 2006.