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Van Ruijven succumbs to illness: Shorttrack world champion dies at 27

Lara van Ruijven has recently been diagnosed with a serious illness. Two operations are said to save the speed skater’s life. But her condition worsens. Now the young athlete has died.

Dutch short track world champion Lara van Ruijven died at the age of 27. This was announced by the national speed skating association. Van Ruijven was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease in June during a training camp in France. She had been hospitalized in Perpignan and was in an intensive care unit in an artificial coma.

Her condition had worsened last week, the speed skating association said. Two operations would not have improved her condition. Recently, new complications have arisen. “Lara is currently fighting for her life,” coach Jeroen Otter said in the association’s announcement. Otter was shocked by the death.

“What terrible news we just got,” he said. “It is so final and surreal. The loss will be felt in the sports world.”

Suzanne Schulting, Van Ruijven’s teammate in the Dutch relay team, who won the Olympic bronze medal over 4×3000 meters in 2018, sent an emotional message to her friend: “Rest in peace, dear Lara,” Schulting wrote on Twitter. “You once told me in the heatbox before the start of the European Championship that everything would be fine. I told you two weeks ago. But it didn’t go well. I will miss you so much, dear Lara. I love you “.

Van Ruijven, who won World Cup gold over 500 meters in 2019, was with the national team on an ice cream course in the Pyrenees town of Font-Romeu. At the end of June, she was brought to the hospital with health problems, where the autoimmune reaction was diagnosed with serious complications, including internal bleeding.

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