The longest serving member of Canada’s national women’s baseball team has died in a local skiing accident.
Baseball Canada said on its website that Amanda Asay, 33, died “following a skiing accident in Nelson” on Friday.
Whitewater Ski Resort confirms someone was critically injured following a “tree well incident” at the resort, but gave no other details. It said the person was taken to hospital by ambulance.
Asay joined the national women’s team in 2005 and won five Women’s Baseball World Cup medals, including bronze in 2006, 2012, and 2018, and silver in 2018 and 2016.
She was also part of the team that won silver at the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto.
“This is really difficult news for our Women’s National Team program,” Baseball Canada’s André Lachance, who managed Asay on various national teams from 2005-18, said on the organization’s website.
“Amanda was an amazing person who meant a great deal to our program. She was a competitor who possessed all of the characteristics that you look for in a baseball player. She was versatile, intelligent and competitive who rose to the challenge on many occasions.
“Above all, she was a terrific person who will leave a lasting impact on many people, not only with the Women’s National Team program but all of those who were lucky enough to meet her.”
Asay was from Prince George and is survived by her parents and a brother.
In addition to being a talent athlete, she earned a bachelor of science from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island and a PhD in forestry from the University of BC, where she played two seasons for the Thunderbirds hockey team.
