The South African police have confirmed that the body of former high jump world champion Jacques Freitag has been found and a murder investigation has been launched after he went missing last month. The 42-year-old, who won the 2003 world title in Paris and competed at the 2004 Olympics, had gone missing in mid-June and his body was discovered in a field near a cemetery in Pretoria.
Although the body had not yet been formally identified by family members, SA Police Service Brigadier Brenda Muridili announced that the missing person’s case in Hercules had been changed to a murder investigation. No one has been arrested yet, but the police are following up on leads. Freitag’s sister, Chrissie Lewis, made an appeal on social media to help find him, mentioning that he had struggled with drug addiction after his athletics career came to an end.
Hendrick Mokganyetsi, the chairperson of Athletics South Africa commission, paid tribute to Freitag and recalled his achievements in high jump competitions over the years. He remembered Freitag’s national record jump of 2.38 metres in 2005 and his gold medal win at the world junior championships in 2000 in Santiago, Chile. In 2003, Freitag won the gold medal at the world championships in Paris with a jump of 2.35 metres, becoming the first South African to achieve this feat in high jump. Freitag’s legacy includes being among a select group of athletes who have won world titles at youth, junior, and senior levels.