+ Laura Dahlmeier, Germany, biathlon, 22 August 1993–28 July 2025.
Laura Dahlmeier died in a mountain climbing accident in the Karakoram Mountains in Pakistan. The German was hit by a rockslide while climbing at an altitude of 5,700 meters.
Dahlmeier won 18 championship medals, including being crowned World Cup overall winner in 2017 with five golds and one silver. She won two Olympic golds in 2018.
Laura Dahlmeier was 31.
+ Razak Omotoyossi, Nigeria, football, October 8, 1985–August 19, 2025.
Omotoyossi was born in Nigeria but chose to play for the Benin national team. The striker was successful in Helsingborg in 2007-2008 - alongside Henrik Larsson - and with 14 goals he was joint top scorer in the Allsvenskan. His career then took him to Saudi Al-Nassr and French Metz. Omotoyossi then had two spells in Gais and Syrianska.
Razak Omotoyossi was 39.
+ Ágnes Keleti, Hungary, gymnastics, January 9, 1921–January 2, 2025.
Born in Budapest in 1921, she won a total of 10 Olympic medals, including five gold. Especially impressive considering that two Summer Olympics, in 1940 and 1944, were canceled due to World War II. Keleti's Jewish roots meant that she was forced to leave her gymnastics team in 1941. She fled to the Hungarian countryside, where she hid and, with the help of false identity documents and other means, managed to survive the Holocaust.
After the war, Keleti resumed her career and won Olympic gold in Helsinki in 1952. In Melbourne four years later, at the age of 35, she became the oldest Olympic gold medalist in gymnastics.
Ágnes Keleti was 103.
+ Diogo Jota, Portugal, football, December 4, 1996–July 3, 2025.
The Liverpool player and his brother André Silva were killed in a car accident in Spain. Witnesses said the vehicle went off the road and caught fire in Zamora.
Jota joined Liverpool ahead of the 2020-2021 season, winning the Premier League title, FA Cup and League Cup during his time at the club, and two Nations League titles with Portugal.
Jota married his partner at the end of June and left behind three children.
Diogo Jota was 28.
+ Ove Kindvall, Sweden, football, May 16, 1943–August 5, 2025.
The legendary player scored two goals against France at Råsunda and led the national football team to the World Cup in Mexico in 1970 - Sweden's first World Cup in twelve years and an achievement that earned Kindvall the Gold Medal. In total, he made 43 senior international appearances and scored 16 goals.
The striker scored 100 goals in 178 matches and was synonymous with IFK Norrköping. Kindvall was a professional at Dutch club Feyenoord from 1966 to 1971, where he scored 129 goals in 144 matches. At Feyenoord, he decided the European Cup final in 1970, and also won the Club World Cup the same year. He received the Golden Ball in 1966.
Ove Kindvall was 82.
+ George Foreman, USA, boxing, January 10, 1949–March 21, 2025.
George Foreman was a newly crowned world champion when he agreed to face Muhammad Ali in a title match in 1974. The match in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo came to be known as "The Rumble in the Jungle" and is one of the most famous events in sports history.
Foreman lost - but came back to become world champion again at the age of 45, becoming the oldest boxer ever to win a world title when he defeated Michael Moorer by knockout.
George Foreman was 76.
+ Mats Lindh, Sweden, ice hockey, September 12, 1947-August 8, 2025.
He was one of the pioneers of Swedish ice hockey when he chose to move to North America to play in the WHA, a rival league to the NHL. Mats Lindh played two seasons with the Winnipeg Jets, where he was teammates with Swedes Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson, among others. He won the league in his first season, 1976. The center, who also played in the 1972 Olympics, won two World Championship bronze medals with Tre Kronor.
Mats Lindh was 77.
+ Ingamay Bylund, Sweden, equestrian, September 25, 1947-November 11, 2025.
Ingamay Bylund made history when she - on the horse Aleks - won team bronze at the Olympics in Los Angeles. The bronze from 1984 is Sweden's last Olympic medal in dressage. She finished fourth individually and also competed in two World Championships and one European Championship.
Ingamay Bylund was 78.
+ Lars-Gunnar Jansson, Sweden, ice hockey, November 30, 1940-November 22, 2025.
Before his role as an expert on Radiosporten, the ice hockey figure coached AIK and Björklöven in the elite league/SHL. Among other things, he was captain of the Swedish junior national team, 1986–87, before he started working for Radiosporten in 1990.
He commented on matches in the elite league/SHL, the World Cup and the Olympics. He stopped working as an expert commentator on the radio in 2019.
Lars-Gunnar Jansson was 84.
+ Åge Hareide, Norway, football, September 23, 1953-December 18, 2025.
In Sweden, the Norwegian had successful spells at both Helsingborg (SM gold 1999) and Malmö FF (SM gold 2014). Hareide led MFF to two consecutive group stages in the Champions League (2014, 2015).
He has been the national team coach for Denmark - which he led to the 2018 World Cup and to the 2020 European Championship, though he missed the European Championship when the playoffs were moved due to the coronavirus pandemic and his contract had expired - as well as for Norway and Iceland.
As a player, he was a tough centre-back with 50 caps for Norway between 1976 and 1986. In England, he played for both Manchester City and Norwich. In Norway, he represented Hødd and Molde.
Åge Hareide was 72.
+ Sivert Guttorm Bakken, Norway, biathlon, 18 July 1998-23 December 2025
The 2021–2022 season was successful for Bakken, with a World Cup victory, a win in the Mass Start Cup and ninth overall. However, after the season, Bakken had to take a step back due to heart problems.
The Norwegian was back for the 2025–2026 season. Bakken participated in six World Cup races, with his best result being fourth place in the distance race in Östersund on December 3. He also finished fifth in the 10-kilometer sprint in Annecy on December 19.
Four days later, on December 23, Bakken was found dead in his hotel room in Lavazé, Italy. He was found wearing a high-altitude mask, a device used to simulate high-altitude air with less oxygen. The cause of death has not yet been determined.
Sivert Guttorm Bakken was 27.
