Shawn Barber, a Canadian pole vaulter, passed away at age 29. The Associated Press reports that medical issues were the cause of his death.
A young athlete who was having health problems passed away.
The Associated Press was informed by Shawn Barber's agent, Paul Doyle, that the Canadian pole vaulter passed away on January 17 at his Kingwood, Texas, home. His age was 29.
Medical difficulties caused Barber's death, the site reported.
His official cause of passing away remains undisclosed.
"More than just an incredible athlete, Shawn was such a good-hearted person that always put others ahead of himself," Doyle told the Associated Press on January 18.
"It's tragic to lose such a good person at such a young age."
With a height of 5.90 metres, Barber won the pole vaulting world championship in 2015 after participating at the University of Akron. He competed in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016 after winning the Pan American Games in the same year.
Barber's athletic career would, however, encounter difficulties in the ensuing years.
He took a hiatus from competition in 2019 after suffering ankle issues in 2018, according to Canadian source CBC.
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2020: "I was dealing with some personal issues—injuries, family," he said to the news anchor.
"There were a lot of personal factors playing roles in my career that I had to re-evaluate and I'm still in the process of managing those relationships."
At the time, Barber described his health as "fairly healthy" and expressed his happiness at gradually getting back into the sport.
"It's a lot of fun to have those early couple of meets," he said. "Something I'm looking forward to working on is just being able to show up and have fun at a meet without the sense of pressure."
