A Czech gymnast has died after falling down a mountain in Germany. Natalie Stichova was visiting Bavaria’s Neuschwanstein castle, which inspired Walt Disney’s children’s classic Sleeping Beauty, when she stood at the edge of Tegelberg Mountain to take a selfie but slipped and fell 262 feet. Paramedics rushed Stichova to a local hospital, but she died six days later.
An unnamed friend, who was with Ms. Stichova at the time, said she wasn’t clear exactly what caused the fall. “We will never find out whether she slipped or whether a piece of the rock edge broke off,” she said.
Police and rescue services said reaching the athlete involved a “challenging climb” and confirmed that she was alive when they got there but severely injured. Doctors found that her brain had lost function, and six days later, her family opted to turn off life support machines. The 23-year-old professional gymnast had a significant Instagram following and was reportedly keen to get a noteworthy picture to post on the platform.
Ms. Stichova had recently begun teaching gymnastics to children and belonged to the Sokol Pribram Sports Club in her home country. The club issued a statement expressing their “deep sorrow” that their “wonderful friend, gymnast, representative, and coach” had “left them forever.”
Hundreds of people have died worldwide since the advance of “selfie” culture. The US National Library of Medicine has called for “no selfies zones” at various spots to save people from themselves. The country with the highest number of selfie deaths is India, followed by Russia and the United States.
Even though women take far more selfies, three-quarters of deaths involve men, and in the United States, the majority are linked to firearms or vehicles. For example, a 19-year-old Texan died when he took a photo of himself with a loaded gun aimed at his head. He accidentally pulled the trigger. Similarly, a Washington state man died after shooting himself on film, unaware that the gun was loaded. A 15-year-old from Missouri met the same fate while taking pictures of his father’s firearm.
