Jeret 'Speedy' Peterson of the United States reacts after performing the first jump of Men's Aerials final at the Turin 2006 Winter Olympic Games at Sauze d'Oulx, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 23, 2006. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
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Jeret "Speedy" Peterson, the high-flying freestyle skier whose silver medal at the Vancouver Olympics represented a triumph over the demons of his past, has died.Officials said the 29-year-old Park City resident shot himself in the head in Lambs Canyon, east of Salt Lake City.
His body was discovered outside his car just off Interstate 80 at about 9:30 on Monday night, police in Salt Lake County said, after Peterson left a suicide note and called police to tell them his location.
"He called 911 and said he was going to kill himself," said Lt. Justin Hoyal, a spokesman for the Unified Police Department.
Peterson had been arrested in Idaho last week on alcohol-related charges, and had endured a troubled childhood as well as a well-documented battle with depression, gambling and alcoholism.
The three-time Olympian was famously sent home from the 2006 Turin Games in Italy because of a drunken street fight with a friend that followed his disappointing seventh-place finish in the aerials as the gold-medal favorite armed with a dizzying signature maneuver — the Hurricane.
Watch Peterson land the Hurricane in this video posted in 2007:
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