British Olympic gold medalist Andrew "Bart" Simpson was killed when his yacht capsized while training for the upcoming America's Cup in San Francisco. The 36 year old who had won gold in Beijing was trapped under his catamaran when it tipped over, according to The Daily Mail.
Craig Monk, a gold medalist from New Zealand, was also injured when the 72-foot long yacht tipped over. Monk is in a San Francisco hospital with neck injuries that are not life threatening, according to ESPN.
The two sailors were part of the Artemis sailing team based out of Sweden. Artemis was one of three teams who would be challenging the current champion Oracle racing for America's Cup, the most prestigious trophy in sailing. Simpson was serving as strategist for the team, Monk was a grinder.
"The entire Artemis team is devastated by what happened," CEO Paul Cayard said in a statement. "Our heartfelt condolences are with Andrew's wife and family."
Simpson was given CPR but was unable to be revived. Stephen Barclay, CEO of the America's Cup Event Authority, said that there will be a review of the incident to see if anything more could be done, according to The Daily Mail.
"One of the things about accidents such as these is that there is lots of speculation about various aspects of what happened," Barclay said. "What we do know is that (Simpson) was trapped underneath and it was for a few minutes."
Last year a similar incident happened to the Oracle team although there were no injuries involved in that accident.
"As with high-performance sports, where athletes are pushing themselves in their craft to their limits, sometimes things go wrong, that's the nature of what they do," Barclay said. "Right now, we, the America's Cup, are trying to establish what happened."
Simpson, along with partner Iain Percy, won a 2008 gold medal in the Star class of sailing and were expected to win again in 2012. The two came up just short in their home country and had to settle for silver.
The Olympic manager of the Royal Yachting Association, Stephen Park, spoke fondly of Simpson.
"Andrew was a fantastic sailor who got the best out of everyone he sailed with," Park said. "He was much loved and will be sorely missed by everyone in our close knit team. Our thoughts today are with Andrew's family."
Pictures of Simpson, the accident, and more can be seen here.
