MOSCOW, June 15 (RIA Novosti) – Russian judo star Yelena Ivashchenko, 28, is likely to have committed suicide by throwing herself from the 15th floor of an apartment block, the Investigative Committee said Saturday.
The body of the four times winner of the European Judo Championships was discovered on the ground near a residential building in the Siberian city of Tyumen, the Investigative Committee said in a statement on its website. Her passport and a suicide note were also found, according to the statement.
Earlier the Russian Judo Federation described the death of Ivashchenko as a “tragedy.”
“Everybody who spoke to Lena was infected by her energy and began to develop a liking for this very positive girl,” the Federation said on their website. “We offer our deepest condolences to friends and family.”
Born in the Siberian city of Omsk, near Russia’s border with Kazakhstan, Ivashchenko won a gold medal at the European Judo Championships in 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2012. She won silver at the World Judo Championships in 2008, and bronze in 2007 and 2011. Last summer she represented Russia at the Olympics in London.
Updated with Investigative Committee statement