out-of-body
北京オリンピックの競泳、男子１００メートル平泳ぎで銀メダルを獲得し、 北島康介選手のライバルとしても知られるノルウェーのダーレオーエン選手が合宿先のアメリカ コロラド州で死亡したと伝えました。
out-of-bodyは文字通り「幽体離脱」ですが、「心が殻になるほどのショックを受けた」という比喩的な意味でも使われます。（UG）
(CNN) -- Norway's world 100-meter breaststroke champion and Olympic silver medalist Alexander Dale Oen has died suddenly at the age 26.
In a statement on its official website, the Norwegian swimming federation said Dale Oen was found collapsed in his bathroom after a cardiac arrest late Monday in Arizona where he was participating in a training camp.
The team's doctor Ola Roensen tried to resuscitate him before he was taken to the nearby Flagstaff Medical Center. He was pronounced dead at 9 p.m. local time.
"We're all in shock," Norway's national swimming coach Petter Loevberg said. "This is an out-of-body experience for the whole team over here. Our thoughts primarily go to his family who have lost Alexander way too early."
Dale Oen won the 100-meter breaststroke at last year's world championships in Shanghai, three days after Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people in a bomb and gun attack in Norway.
The swimmer poignantly pointed to the Norwegian flag on his cap, and later dedicated his win to the victims.
"Everyone back home now is of course paralyzed with what happened," he said after the race. "But it was important for me to symbolize that even though I'm here in China, I'm able to feel the same emotions."
Dale Oen also won silver at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing for Norway's first ever swimming medal and was expected to be one of the country's main hopes for gold in London later this year.
This is the blackest day in the history of Norwegian swimming
Norway swimming president
World swimming's governing body FINA said he was "certainly preparing a brilliant participation at the upcoming Olympic Games in London."
Norway's swimming federation did not give a cause of the cardiac arrest. It said Dale Oen had only had a light workout on Monday and had seemed in good health.
"This is the blackest day in the history of Norwegian swimming," said Per Rune Eknes, president of the federation.
Four-time Olympic breaststroke champion Kosuke Kitajima, who Dale Oen would have been looking to beat in London, tweeted that he was "in shock over the passing of a dear friend and great rival. RIP Alex."
