'Speedy' Peterson commits suicide

U.S. skier Jeret Peterson, who won silver at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics in freestyle aerials, committed suicide by shooting himself in the head in Utah, U.S. media reported on Wednesday. Police discovered Peterson's body in Utah's Lamb Canyon between Salt Lake City and Park City. His suicide comes three days after he was detained for speeding and driving while intoxicated. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the 29-year-old athlete, known as Speedy, called 911 to say where he was before shooting himself. "Today is a sad day for skiing," Bill Marolt, the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association president, said in a statement. Peterson, he said, "was a great champion who will be missed and remembered as a positive, innovative force in not only his sport of freestyle aerials, but in the entire U.S. Freestyle Ski Team family and everyone he touched." At the 2006 Olympics in Italy's Turin Peterson performed the hardest aerials trick known as the Hurricane, which consists of five dangerous twists and three flips. He was slightly off balance upon landing and touched the ground with one hand and the judges gave him scores for seventh place. He performed the same trick four years later at the Winter Olympics in Canada and was awarded silver for that. Peterson had depression and alcoholism problems throughout his adult life. He got into a drunken fight at the 2006 Olympics in Turin and was excluded from the team and sent home for that incident.