Shock and grief have gripped the sports world after Italian orienteer Mattia Debertolis died four days after collapsing during the World Games in Chengdu, China.
The 29-year-old athlete was found unconscious last Friday while competing in the men’s middle-distance final, where temperatures rose above 30 degrees. Event organisers said he was given urgent treatment at one of China’s top medical facilities but died on Tuesday.
“Despite receiving immediate expert medical care at one of China’s leading medical institutions, he passed away,” the World Games organisers said in a statement.
International Orienteering Federation president Tom Hollowell said, “I am not able to adequately describe the unfathomable depth of sadness in this tragic loss of life.”
The cause of death is still unknown.
Debertolis, ranked 137th in the world, was among 12 athletes listed as “Did Not Finish” in the official results. The civil engineer and PhD student in Sweden had previously secured a fifth-place finish in the 2022 World Cup final.
Orienteering is a demanding outdoor sport that requires competitors to navigate between unmarked checkpoints using a map, combining intense physical effort with quick thinking.
Organisers said they will “continue to support the family of Debertolis and the orienteering community in every possible way.”
