The parents of 18-year-old Swiss cyclist Muriel Furrer have told The Athletic that they will not pursue any further enquiries into her death after a criminal investigation into the circumstances surrounding it was closed.
“We must accept this outcome,” they said. “We have found a way to live with the grief and the immeasurable loss and suffering.”
Furrer died in September 2024 during the junior world championship road race in Zurich, crashing on a descent in the suburb of Küsnacht, just 15 minutes away from her childhood home.
An investigation by The Athletic subsequently revealed that Furrer had not been discovered by course officials or medical workers for around an hour-and-a-half after crashing, having disappeared from sight in heavy undergrowth below the road. She passed away in hospital from severe head injuries the next day.
After an 18 month investigation, the Zurich public prosecutor’s office ruled in March that neither the emergency response nor those responsible for course safety were criminally liable for the tragedy.
“Based on the police investigation, the cyclist’s fall is considered a racing accident with no evidence of criminal conduct or contributory negligence on the part of the organiser, other race participants, or third parties,” read a press release from the prosecutor’s office.
In a statement shared with The Athletic and Swiss newspaper Le Temps, Furrer’s parents, Christine and Reto, said that they “acknowledge no criminal conduct has occurred”.
“(We) are particularly concerned that Muriel remained undetected for so long,” they added. “It is important that the right lessons are learned from the incident and that similar situations are prevented in the future.”
Her parents confirmed that they consider the matter closed.
The full investigation has not yet been released because the final conclusions have not yet become legally binding. It means that several further issues — such as whether the presence of tracking technology or extra marshals could have shortened the delay in finding Furrer — have not yet received an answer.
The Athletic reported in December 2024 that two separate parties had offered local organisers and the UCI, cycling’s governing body, use of publicly-accessible tracking systems ahead of the race. Neither of these were taken up.
The UCI has confirmed that GPS tracking will become mandatory over the coming seasons, with the technology set to become gradually phased in. However, similar incidents have continued to occur.
British rider Tom Pidcock, for example, told The Athletic on Saturday how he was concerned that his team were unaware of his accident after crashing at 60kph in the Volta a Catalunya last month.
“I landed, and just remember feeling like my arm couldn’t move,” he said. “My leg was dead. And I was thinking that nobody else had crashed. I was alone down this hill, I didn’t know what I’d hurt because everything was hurting and I couldn’t move. And I didn’t know how long I was going to be down here for.
“Luckily, because of the way I had landed, I could send on the radio that I’d gone off, but the team car had already gone a kilometre down the road. And so after a few minutes, which felt like half an hour, I was able to move. And then I climbed out.”