Ellie Soutter

Soutter first learned to snowboard at ten, and by her early teens she was already competing. She joined the inaugural British Europa Cup snowboard cross programme, focusing on freestyle, freeride, and snowboard cross. She began international competition in the 2016 season, coached by French Olympic snowboarder Déborah Anthonioz. In 2017 she won Great Britain's only medal at the European Youth Olympic Winter Festival, taking bronze in snowboard cross and serving as flagbearer at the closing ceremony. The same year, she was shortlisted for the Ski Club of Great Britain's Evie Pinching Award, an annual honour for young snowsports athletes. Her promise earned her selection for the Junior Snowboard World Championships in New Zealand, scheduled for August 2018, and she was training there not long before her death.

Soutter died by suicide on 25 July 2018, her 18th birthday, near her French home. Her death shocked the snowboarding community. Days later, her father Tony spoke publicly about her history of mental health issues and the pressures of high-performance sport, calling for better mental health support for young athletes. Years afterward, he revealed that Soutter had suffered seven major concussions between 2013 and 2018, each one worse and requiring longer recovery. After her final "huge" concussion, she was hospitalised and briefly didn't recognise her father or where she was, yet a neurologist, based on a CT scan, cleared her to continue competing, saying she "was absolutely fine." She was in a relationship with French snowboarder Oscar Mandin. Her story has since raised important questions about athlete welfare and concussion protocols.