The five-time Olympian Daniela Larreal Chirinos was found dead inside her Las Vegas apartment after the retired cyclist choked to death on her food, police have said.
The 50-year-old’s body was found after she failed to show up at the hotel in Las Vegas where she worked and was checked on, Fox Sports reported.
Larreal was one of Venezuela’s best-known athletes, having competed in sprint cycling in the summer games of Barcelona in 1992, Atlanta in 1996, Sydney in 2000, Athens in 2004 and London in 2012.
Though she never medalled at the Olympics, she did win a pair of golds at the Central American and Caribbean Games in San Salvador in 2002. And, a year later, she won two silver medals at the Pan American Games in Santo Domingo.
Larreal was active in Venezuelan politics. She was a tough critic of strongman ruler Hugo Chávez, accusing the late president – along with his sports minister Hector Rodriguez – of funneling money out of Venezuela through the sponsorship of a non-existent racing driver.
When Nicolás Maduro came to power in 2013, she called the presidency a dictatorship and was subsequently forced into exile and banned from entering Venezuela. Larreal in later years lived in Miami, where she worked as an Uber driver, before moving to Las Vegas to work as a food server.
But Larreal was declared missing on 12 August after failing to turn up for work. She was found dead at her apartment four days later.
The local medical examiner was still examining the “cause and method” of her death as of Tuesday. But police reportedly spotted solid food remains in her windpipe, leading them to suspect she had died from asphyxiation.
