Olympic champ skips WCup race in Turkey amid safety concerns

Published March 16, 2017

VIENNA (AP) Olympic snowboard champion Julia Dujmovits is pulling out of a World Cup event in the central Turkish city of Kayseri on Saturday because of security concerns.

The Austrian snowboarder says she doesn't feel safe traveling to a city where 13 people were killed in a suicide car bomb attack on a public bus less than three months ago.

Dujmovits wrote on her website, ''Sorry, I've not become a snowboarder to compete under police protection and guarded by sharpshooters. In a country which, due to its current political situation, just can't guarantee safety.''

Her Austrian teammates are set to compete in Saturday's event, the last parallel giant slalom of the season. The fourth-ranked Dujmovits, who won the Olympic parallel slalom title in 2014, could no longer win the discipline title.

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