Former high jump world champion Jacques Freitag found shot dead in South Africa

Freitag, 42, went missing last month and his body has now been found by South African police with gunshot wounds

Jacques Freitag won world gold in 2003 but has been found dead at the age of 42 (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

South African police have discovered the body of former high jump world champion Jacques Freitag after he went missing last month, local media reported on Wednesday.

The reports from outlets, including Netwerk24, said the 42-year-old – who won the 2003 world title in Paris and competed at the 2004 Olympics in Athens – was found with gunshot wounds, having been shot.

Police said they found the body in a field near a cemetery in the city of Pretoria and are treating the case as murder. The body had not yet been formally identified by family members and his family declined to comment.

Freitag's sister, Chrissie Lewis, had appealed for help on social media to find Freitag, who went missing June 17 after leaving his mother's house with an unknown man. Lewis said he had struggled with drug addiction after his athletics career ended.

Freitag was among a select group of athletes to win world titles at youth, junior and senior levels and jumped a personal best of 2.38m in 2005.

Associated Press