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maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 11 MARCH 2015 20 Sport SPORTTODAY OLYMPICS French Olympic athletes die in helicopter crash TWO Olympic athletes who won medals for France were among ten people killed Monday when two helicopters crashed in a remote area of northwest Argentina. Eight of the victims were French citizens, including swimmer Camille Muffat and boxer Alexis Vastine. The athletes were part of a crew filming the reality show "Dropped," a survivalist pro- gramme that is broadcast through- out Europe. Muffat, 25, won three medals at the 2012 Olympic Games in Lon- don, including gold in the 400- meter freestyle. Vastine, 28, won a bronze medal in the light welter- weight division at the 2008 Olym- pics in Beijing. Florence Arthaud, 57, a champion sailor, also was among the dead in the crash. In 1990, she won the famed Route du Rhum race — a trans-Atlantic single-handed yacht race between Brittany and the Car- ibbean islands of Guadeloupe — on her boat Pierre 1er. "The brutal demise of our com- patriots is an immense sadness," said French President Francois Hollande in a statement published on the website of the French daily Liberation. "Some had finished their careers and one was dreaming of gold in Rio," French Secretary of State for Sport Thierry Braillard said Tues- day on BFM TV channel. "I'm pro- foundly saddened. French sport has lost three stars this morning." Hollande's statement identified the remaining victims as Laurent Sbasnik, Lucie Mei-Dalby, Volodia Guinard, Brice Guilbert and Ed- ouard Gilles, as well as Argentine pilots Juan Carlos Castillo and Roberto Abate. Sylvain Wiltord, a former soccer star who played for the French na- tional team as well as the English club Arsenal and reportedly one of the show's contestants, tweeted: "I'm sad for my friends, I'm trem- bling, I'm horrified, I have no words, I don't want to say anything." The helicopters crashed near the town of Villa Castelli in La Rioja province, about 730 miles north- west of Buenos Aires, La Rioja Sec- retary of Security Cesar Angulo told television station TN. "An explosion occurred and it's believed that they must have collid- ed," said Angulo. "Aeronautical ex- perts will have to determine that." The TV show's crew had arrived on Sunday in Villa Castelli, where it had previously filmed a version of the show for Switzerland and Den- mark, said Villa Castelli mayor An- dres Navarrette. "The causes of the crash are not known," Navarrete told radio sta- tion Cadena 3. Photographs showed the burning and smoking wreckage of the heli- copters on the ground with people gathered nearby. Angulo said one of the helicop- ters belonged to La Rioja prov- ince and the other belonged to the neighboring province of Santiago del Estero. The rugged, sparsely populated area is on the edge of the Andes mountain range that separates Argentina and Chile. The crash happened at around 5:15 p.m. local time, according to Argentine news agency Telam, which also reported that parts of the wreckage were still on fire hours after the crash. Several after-hours calls to vari- ous departments within the mu- nicipality of Villi Castelli were not answered. The deaths are likely to place new attention on the risks involved with reality TV shows, which have been highly popular and sometimes in- volve taking celebrities and others to far-f lung locations to face chal- lenges against the natural elements — both physical and mental. Two years ago, TF1 — France's best-known private-sector net- work, which aired the show — can- celed the remaining season of the "Survivor"-like reality show "Koh Lanta" after a 25-year-old partici- pant died of a heart attack on the first day of filming. French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said France's foreign minis- try is in contact with authorities in Argentina to determine what caused the crash. Adventure Line Productions, the show's producers, said in a state- ment that its teams were "devas- tated and share the deep pain of the families and loved ones." "We are in contact with the pro- duction teams on site (and) with the French and Argentine authori- ties. We will give more information as soon as possible," the producers added. International Olympic Commit- tee President Thomas Bach said the Olympic f lag will be f lown at half-staff for three days IOC head- quarters. He added that the athletes "were all not only champions in their sport, but also contributed greatly as role models." Camille Muffat, Alexis Vastine and Florence Arthaud Two helicopters crashed while filming a French reality TV show, causing the death of 10 people