US Olympic skier Jeret commits suicide

Jeret "Speedy" Peterson, who won a silver medal in Freestyle skiing aerials at the 2010 Winter Olympics, has been found dead in an apparent suicide, Utah police said on Tuesday.

The Unified Police of Greater Salt Lake said Peterson called 911 emergency services before shooting himself on Monday evening.

"He called 911 and said he was going to kill himself," Lieutenant Justin Hoyal, a spokesman for the Unified Police Department, told the Salt Lake Tribune.

Police said a suicide note was found near Peterson's car but did not say what it contained.

Officers found the body of the 29-year-old about 9:30 pm between Salt Lake City and Park City in the isolated Lambs Canyon.

Peterson had been cited for drunken driving Friday in Hailey, Idaho, where police said they clocked him driving three times the speed limit. He pleaded not guilty.

Peterson was best known for the spectacular and risky "Hurricane" - a triple-twist, double-flip trick that was breathtaking when he landed it.

However, he battled alcohol addiction and depression even as he pursued his Olympic dream.

He was dismissed from the 2006 Turin Olympics by US Olympic officials after a drunken brawl.

A year earlier he was charged with burglary and stealing weapons and pleaded guilty after felony charges were reduced.

After he won his silver medal in Vancouver, Peterson had said the achievement was "redemption" after years of troubles that had already included two suicide attempts.

When he was five, his sister was killed by a drunk driver and a few months later, an uncle died of an AIDS-related illness.

He also watched his close friend and roommate commit suicide, shooting himself in the head without saying a word.

"Today is a sad day in our sport," Bill Marolt, the chief executive of the US ski team, said in a statement on Tuesday.

"Jeret 'Speedy' Peterson was a great champion who will be missed and remembered as a positive, innovative force on not only his sport of freestyle aerials, but on the entire US Freestyle Ski Team family and everyone he touched."

When he landed his trademark Hurricane in the competition at Vancouver's Cypress Mountain, narrowly missing out on gold to Alexei Grishin of Belarus, Peterson still called it "the best day of my life."

"I know that a lot of people go through a lot of things in their life, and I just want them to realize they can overcome anything," Peterson said then.

"Regardless of the amazing stuff he did skiing, it was the stuff he did for other people that was incredible to me," said Peterson's longtime coach and friend, Matt Christensen. "A lot of people saw his story and said he must be a wild jackass and a cowboy. He was just the opposite."