United States-born kitefoiler J.J. Rice, that was readied to stand for Tonga at the Paris Olympics, passed away in a diving crash. He was 18.
Rice’s papa Darren Rice verified his child’s fatality Monday to the Matangi Tonga newspaper.
Jackson James Rice was readied to come to be the very first White to stand for Tonga at an Olympic Gamings. His fatality took place Saturday at Faleloa, on the island of Ha’apai in the Tonga island chain.
He was complimentary diving from a watercraft when he endured a thought superficial water power outage, Matangi Tonga reported. Initiatives to restore him were not successful.
” I was honored with one of the most incredible bro in the entire globe and it discomforts me to state that he’s died,” Rice’s sibling Lily stated in a Facebook message. “He was an outstanding kitefoiler and he would certainly have made it to the Olympics and bring out a huge glossy medal. He made numerous incredible pals around the globe.”
Rice had actually lately gone back to Tonga after completing in the 2024 Solution Kite Globe Championships in France, the Matangi Tonga reported.
Rice was birthed in the USA to British-born moms and dads however matured on Ha’apai where his moms and dads run a visitor lodge. “I have actually stayed in Tonga my entire life, I see myself as a Tongan,” he informed Matangi Tonga last month. “I do not see myself as anything else.”
Rice frequently published video clips of himself training in Tonga on his Instagram account.
In an Instagram post last month, Rice stated he wished to “state a huge thanks to everybody that has actually sustained, mentored, provided me a sofa to remain on and pressed me to my outright limitation.”
” Thanks to start with to my mum and father without you men absolutely nothing would certainly be feasible,” he wrote
Rice completed 8th at the Sail Sydney occasion in December to make his Olympic location. Kitefoiling will certainly be an Olympic sporting activity for the very first time in Paris.
Rice lately had actually been educating and completing in Europe.
Kitefoilers race aboard that are taken off the water on aluminum foils and can get to rates of greater than 30 miles per hour.
This write-up initially released to CBS News on June 17, 2024, at 10:52 a.m. ET.
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