The cause of death of famous 30-year-old Russian freestyler Pavel Krotov, who died in Moscow on March 25, has been revealed. According to Alexander Pongilsky, head coach of the Russian national team, the cause of the tragedy was a cerebral hemorrhage.
“Doctors reported that Pavel Krotov died of a cerebral hemorrhage. A ship exploded in a dream. Farewell to Krotov will take place on Tuesday in Yaroslavl. He will be buried on Tuesday in the Yaroslavl region,” he said.
The International Ski Federation (FIS) sent a condolence message to the relatives of the athlete who lost his life.
“FIS offers its deepest condolences to Pavel’s family, friends and loved ones,” the international federation said in a statement.
For me, the news of Pavel’s departure was a big blow. The cause of death is still unknown to me, the autopsy will only be done on Monday. Pongilsky, the head coach of the Russian national team and also the personal mentor of the athlete, told the TASS agency immediately after the incident.
“In the season after the Olympics, Pavel did not compete due to a knee injury, he resolved his health issues and planned to return to sports after recovery.”
Krotov studied at the same children’s and youth sports school in Yaroslavl, together with another famous domestic freestyler Ilya Burov, who won two bronze medals at the Olympic Games.
Pavel made his debut at the World Cup stages very early – at the age of 19 in 2011. And in the following season, he managed to win his first victory in competitions of this level at Mont Gabriel.
Krotov earned his second victory at the World Cup stages at the acrobatic competitions in Moscow in 2020. Additionally, he has four runner-ups on his account in the stages of Beijing (2014), Krasnoyarsk (2020), Finnish Hand (2020) and his hometown Yaroslavl (2021).
He won the 2019 World Cup stage in China with Maxim Burov and Lyubov Nikitina in aerobatic team competitions, and also achieved a second place and two third places in teams with Veronika Korsunova and Ilya Burov and Alexandra Orlova. and Vasily Polenov.
The best individual result at the overall World Cup for a Russian was a rather high eighth place.
Krotov performed at the Olympic Games in Sochi in 2014. He finished ninth in the first qualifier and failed to make it to the final on the go. However, after showing the third result in the second qualifying round, he still made it to the decisive stage.
True, Pavel did not succeed there: he showed the tenth result, while the eight best freestyle athletes advanced to the second round.
The most successful competition in Krotov’s career was the World Championship, held in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan, shortly before his knee injury.
Already in qualifying, he showed the second result ahead of the more titled Burov brothers. True, it was Maxim Burov who eventually became the world champion, but Pavel managed to get to the final from the second place, where he won the bronze award.
And in the same tournament, Lyubov became the world champion in a team with Nikitina and Maxim Burov, and Russian acrobats won the competition with a clear advantage over their opponents from Switzerland and the USA.