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In a tragic turn of events, South African police have discovered the body of former high jump world champion Jacques Freitag after he had been missing for a month. 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. Police located his body in a field near a cemetery in Pretoria and are treating the case as a murder investigation. The family has yet to formally identify the body and has chosen not to make any statements at this time.
Freitag’s sister, Chrissie Lewis, took to social media to ask for help in finding her brother, who disappeared on June 17 after leaving his mother’s house with an unknown man. Lewis mentioned that Freitag had struggled with drug addiction following the end of his athletic career. Notably, Freitag was part of an exclusive group of athletes who had won world titles at youth, junior, and senior levels, with a personal best high jump of 2.38m in 2005.
