Alex Pullin (20 September 1987 – 8 July 2020), nicknamed Chumpy, was an Australian

snowboarder Snowboarding is a recreational and competitive activity that involves descending a snow-covered surface while standing on a snowboard that is almost always attached to a rider's feet. It features in the Winter Olympic Games and Winter Paralympi ...

who competed at the

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

and

2018 Winter Olympics The 2018 Winter Olympics ( ko, 2018년 동계 올림픽, Icheon sip-pal nyeon Donggye Ollimpik), officially the XXIII Olympic Winter Games (french: Les XXIIIes Jeux olympiques d'hiver; ko, 제23회 동계 올림픽, Jeisipsamhoe Donggye Ollimpi ...

. He was a two-time

snowboard cross Snowboard cross, also known as boardercross, is a snowboard competition in which four to six competitors race down a course. Snowboard cross courses are typically quite narrow and include cambered turns, various types of jumps, berms, rollers, ...

(boardercross) world champion.

Early life

Pullin was born on 20 September 1987 in

Mansfield, Victoria Mansfield is a small town in the foothills of the Victorian Alps in the Australian state of Victoria. It is approximately north-east of Melbourne by road. The population around Mansfield was as at the 2016 census. The town itself has 341 ...

. He started snowboarding at a young age, and came to prefer

, because he considered it "the most pure form of competition". His parents owned a ski hire shop.

Career

Pullin competed for

Australia at the 2010 Winter Olympics Australia participated at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. A team of forty athletes was selected to compete in eleven sports. The Chef de Mission was Ian Chesterman who has held the position since the 1998 Winter ...

in snowboard cross (boardercross). He had the fastest qualifying time (1:20.15) in his event, but was eliminated in the first round of competition, finishing in 17th place by virtue of his qualifying time. Pullin was the flag bearer for the Australian Winter Olympic team at the

2014 Winter Olympics The 2014 Winter Olympics, officially called the XXII Olympic Winter Games (russian: XXII Олимпийские зимние игры, XXII Olimpiyskiye zimniye igry) and commonly known as Sochi 2014 (russian: Сочи 2014), was an international ...

in Sochi, Russia, and competed in the men's snowboard cross. One of the favourites in that event, Pullin was eliminated in the quarterfinals. The Australian government had given Pullin $500,000 in funding for the event, more than any other Australian competitor. At the

, Pullin again competed in the Men's Snowboard Cross and came in sixth place, having crashed out during the final race. He was the number one ranked competitor in the event according to the world rankings prior to the Games. Fellow Australian

Jarryd Hughes Jarryd Hughes (born 21 May 1995) is an Australian snowboarder. He achieved second in boardercross at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics. Career He competed at the 2012 FIS Snowboard World Cup as a 16-year-old and came in at 10th place at th ...

came second at the event, but Pullin did not congratulate him due to a personal feud between them. Aside from the Olympics, Pullin began competing in the Winter

X Games The X Games are an annual extreme sports event organized, produced and broadcast by ESPN. Coverage is also shown on ESPN's sister network, ABC. The inaugural X Games were held during the summer of 1995 in Providence and Newport, Rhode Island, ...

in 2008. He won a silver medal in the 2016 event in

Aspen, Colorado Aspen is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 7,004 at the 2020 United States Census. Aspen is in a remote area of the Rocky Mo ...

, United States. He won the

events at the 2011 and 2013 FIS Snowboarding World Championships, making him the first Australian to defend a Snowboarding World Championships title. Pullin also won the overall

title in the

2010–11 FIS Snowboard World Cup The 2010–11 FIS Snowboard World Cup was a multi race tournament over a season for snowboarding. The season started on 10 October 2010 and ended on 27 March 2011. The World Cup was organised by the FIS which also run world cups and championships ...

and the

2012–13 FIS Snowboard World Cup The 2012–13 FIS Snowboard World Cup was a multi race tournament over a season for snowboarding. The season started on 28 August 2012 and ended on 27 March 2013. The World Cup was organised by the FIS which also runs world cups and championships ...

. In 2011, he won a gold medal at the

New Zealand Winter Games The New Zealand Winter Games (NZWG) is an international multi-sport event held every two years in New Zealand. The event is organised by the Winter Games New Zealand Trust. Overview The Games are organised by the Winter Games New Zealand Trust ...

. In 2011, he became an ambassador for

Suzuki is a Japan, Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Minami-ku, Hamamatsu, Japan. Suzuki manufactures automobiles, motorcycles, All-terrain vehicle, all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), outboard motor, outboard marine engines, wheelchairs ...

Australia as part of a sponsorship with the vehicle manufacturer. Outside of snowboarding, Pullin fronted a

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use the ...

band called Love Charli.Winter Olympics: Big hopes on the slopes
,

Qantas Qantas Airways Limited ( ) is the flag carrier of Australia and the country's largest airline by fleet size, international flights, and international destinations. It is the List of airlines by foundation date, world's third-oldest airline sti ...

Travel Insider, February 2010. In 2020, Pullin announced his retirement from the sport.

Death

On 8 July 2020, Pullin drowned on the Gold Coast in

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

, at the age of 32. He was believed to have been

spearfishing Spearfishing is a method of fishing that involves impaling the fish with a straight pointed object such as a spear, gig or harpoon. It has been deployed in artisanal fishing throughout the world for millennia. Early civilisations were famil ...

by himself at an

artificial reef An artificial reef is a human-created underwater structure, typically built to promote marine life in areas with a generally featureless bottom, to control erosion, block ship passage, block the use of trawling nets, or improve surfing S ...

off Palm Beach. Pullin's body was spotted on the ocean floor by a snorkeler. Lifeguards attempted to resuscitate him using

cardiopulmonary resuscitation Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is an emergency procedure consisting of chest compressions often combined with artificial ventilation in an effort to manually preserve intact brain function until further measures are taken to restore spon ...

for 45–50 minutes, but he did not recover. On 25 October 2021, fifteen months after Pullin's death, his partner Ellidy Pullin gave birth to their daughter, conceived by

in vitro fertilisation In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a process of fertilisation where an egg is combined with sperm in vitro ("in glass"). The process involves monitoring and stimulating an individual's ovulatory process, removing an ovum or ova (egg or eggs) f ...

References

External links

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Olympic profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pullin, Alex 1987 births 2020 deaths Accidental deaths in Queensland Australian male snowboarders Olympic snowboarders of Australia Sportsmen from Victoria (Australia) Snowboarders at the 2010 Winter Olympics Snowboarders at the 2014 Winter Olympics Snowboarders at the 2018 Winter Olympics Underwater diving deaths Deaths by drowning in Australia X Games athletes