Venezuelan five-time Olympic cyclist Daniela Larreal Chirinos was found dead in her Las Vegas apartment after choking on her food, police said.
As Fox Sports reported, authorities were called to the 50-year-old former athlete’s home on Friday after she failed to show up at the Las Vegas hotel where she worked all week.
According to the report, police determined that she died of asphyxiation on Sunday, August 11, because solid food particles were found in her windpipe.
Chirinos was the leading figure in Venezuelan cycling from 1990 to 2012 and competed in five Olympic Games in speed cycling, including Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and London 2012.
She won two gold medals in San Salvador in 2002 and two silver medals, one at the 2002 Games and one in Mexico City in 1990. According to Fox Sports, she also won two silver medals at the 2003 Pan American Games in Santo Domingo.
She was also awarded three gold and one silver medals at the 2002 Central American and Caribbean Games in San Salvador, El Salvador.
Chirinos had earned her physical education degree in Venezuela before coming to the United States, the report said.
