Former world skating champion murdered in Colombia

The Colombian skater Luz Mery Tristán, who was world champion in 1990, was murdered early Sunday in a condominium in Cali (a crime for which her partner was arrested).

Tristán, 60, was shot several times, allegedly by her boyfriend, who shot at the police when they arrived at the scene.

“With a broken heart and with deep sadness, I received, the news of the murder of Luz Mery Tristán, a true skating legend and an example of perseverance and passion for sports,” said the governor of Valle, Clara Luz Roldán.

Governor Roldán recalled that Tristán was “the first world skating champion in Colombia, but also the inspiration for many boys and girls to become world champions like her, and Colombian skating is today the power it is.”

Tristán was born in Pereira but after a few years, her family moved to Cali where she grew up and began to practice skating, a sport in which she achieved the greatest achievements for the country.

She was the first to win a world skating championship for Colombia and she did it in 1990 in the 5,000-meter event in Bello, a town in the department of Antioquia.

Among her other achievements, the gold he won in the 5,000 meters at the Pan American Games in Indianapolis stands out, where she also climbed to the podium for bronze with the relay team.

After retiring from sports activity, she started private businesses such as a sportswear brand and created a skating school in Cali that bears her name. World champions such as Daniela Mendoza, Rommy Muñoz, Sebastián Garcés, and Johana Viveros were trained there.