Diver Jackson James Rice died in a terrible accident when he was 18 years old, just a few weeks before he was supposed to compete at the Olympics in Paris.
The teen had qualified for the new kite-foiling event and was going to be the first Caucasian to represent Tonga at an Olympic Games.
A “suspected shallow water blackout” killed Rice on Saturday in Faleloa, Tonga.
He was free diving from a boat when the terrible thing happened.
His father, Darren, told the Matangi Tonga newspaper that his body was found under the boat at 12:15 p.m. and that attempts to revive him were unsuccessful.
In a touching post on social media on Sunday, Rice’s sister Lily talked about her brother.
This is what she wrote on Facebook: “I had the best brother in the world, and it hurts me to say that he died.”
“He could have made it to the Olympics and won a big medal for kitefoiling. He was that good.” He made wonderful friends all over the world.
Rice was born in the US to British parents and then moved to Tonga.
He was born in Haʻapai and raised there; his parents run a tourist lodge there. He thought of himself as Tongan.
The skilled athlete got into what was supposed to be his first Olympics last December by coming in eighth place at a Sail Sydney event.
ANOC says that kite foil racing is “an extreme sport that combines elements of sailing, wakeboarding, windsurfing, surfing, and paragliding.”