Luce Douady: 16-year-old free climbing prodigy falls 500 ft to her death after slipping off cliff in an accident
Teenage free climbing prodigy Luce Douady from France has died after she fell from a cliff in an accident. The news of her death came on Sunday, June 14. The 16-year-old Douady was reportedly climbing with her friends on an outing near Grenoble, a city in the French alps in the south-east of the country when the tragic incident happened.
The mountain police platoon in Haute Savoie has confirmed the death of Douady and told Euronews that the Olympic hopeful had fallen 500 feet (150 meters) and that an investigation had been launched. According to reports, the teenager was walking on an exposed path on her way to start her climb on a cliff at Le Luisset near the town of Grenoble when her feet slipped and she fell to her death.
“Luce was a very promising young athlete from the French climbing team. At only 16, the future was before her. This terrible news hit her training comrades, her coaches, and her club, Chambéry Escalade hard. But today, the whole federation is in mourning. We obviously think of the family and we will be at their disposal,” the French Mountain Climbing Federation (FFME) wrote in a statement on its website. “Luce Douady was in love with all facets of climbing, capable of major achievements in natural sites,” the statement added.
According to the website, Douady was “World Champion of Young Boulders in 2019 at Arco and 5th at the end of her first stage of the World Cup of bouldering in Vail that same year.” She also came “3rd at the 2019 European Difficulty Championship”. A Guardian report has stated that the young girl was seen as one of the brightest young talents in the sport. She was expected to be introduced to the Olympics in Tokyo next year.
Police said that in their initial investigation, they discovered Douady had probably not secured her cable properly to the handrail in the challenging pass, although she was familiar with the cliff. The officials also mentioned that this type of accident is rare in the area.
The 2024 Paris Olympics committee shared a picture of Douady as they wrote on Twitter: “Luce Douady was a promising talent of French climbing, a true champion who had so many summits to climb. Immense sadness and thoughts for her loved ones.” Her climbing club, Chambéry Escalade, posted a message on their Facebook page, writing: “Luce, this girl, this young woman full of energy, passions, talents! A beautiful person! She left the way she lived in crunch life! Now it's her family, friends we think. We share the immense emptiness, the pain, the pain... Be strong and strong for her memory! Forever forever, Luce!”
In another incident, a woman in Turkey fell to her death when she went outside to celebrate the end of the local coronavirus lockdown. The tragic incident happened when Olesia Suspitsina, a Kazakh national, was out with her friend in Anatyla’s picturesque Duden Park on April 26. The 31-year-old reportedly scaled a safety barrier so her friend could capture her standing on a cliff’s edge. However, Suspitsina’s adventurous plan went all wrong when she slipped on the grass, losing her balance, and fell off the 115 foot (35 meters) cliff to her death.