Garmisch-Partenkirchen - She ended her extremely successful biathlon career early . Away from competitive sport, she loves taking risks in the mountains, but it was precisely this that dealt Laura Dahlmeier (31) a serious blow in January 2022.

As a documentary on ZDF ("Laura Dahlmeier und der Rausch der Höhe") has now revealed, the two-time Winter Olympics champion lost her ex-boyfriend in a tragic accident.

At a meeting in a café with her best friend Dr. Veronika Schirmer, she says with regard to Dahlmeier's great passion: "At some point the statistics will strike, but I simply trust what she's doing. I generally trust all people, what they do in mountain sports, but there are also many examples, my brother, even her ex-boyfriend, who has simply passed away, in mountain sports. I'm relatively fine with it, I've come to terms with it in the meantime, but of course it's not easy, neither for Laura nor for me."

On January 6, 2022, Robert Johann Grasegger (†29) died in an avalanche in Argentina four months before his 30th birthday.

He was planning to climb the 3405-metre-high Fitz Roy mountain in Patagonia with his girlfriend at the time, Anna Trutschnig (30) from Austria, and another mountaineer.

Shortly before they reached their destination, a final, very steep snowfield lay ahead of them. Grasegger and his girlfriend ventured up, while his companion did not follow and stayed to the side.

Then a wet snow avalanche caught the two of them and swept them down into a scree field.

The companion rushed to help, cared for the two and was able to call mountain rescue from a refuge after two hours. In the middle of the night, 44 rescue workers found the Austrian woman, but there was no trace of Grasegger, who had apparently slipped further down.

He was found dead the next morning, while his girlfriend had been taken to hospital with serious fractures and required lung surgery.

Grasegger was a trained carpenter, was involved in the fire department and rescue service and had trained as a mountain guide.

Ice climbing was also one of his great passions. Although he always acted with extreme caution and was able to assess the risk well, the tragic accident occurred in Argentina that changed the lives of Dahlmeier and her best friend forever.