Lightning strike kills surfer training for shot at Olympics, El Salvador officials say

A lightning strike killed a 22-year-old surfer Friday as she trained for her shot at the Tokyo Olympics, El Savlador authorities say.

Katherine Diaz had planned to compete in the 2021 Surf City El Salvador World Surfing Games in May to qualify for the Olympics, which will be held this summer after being postponed due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, CNN reported.

Lightning struck Diaz shortly after she entered the ocean at El Tunco Beach — around 10 miles south of the capital of San Salvador — to train, Sky News reported. She died instantly.

Beto Diaz told the El Salvadoran newspaper Cancha that lightning hit his niece as she went to hug a friend in the water.

“As soon as she finished hugging her, she heard thunder,” her uncle, who also was in the water, told the publication. “She, the friend, was also thrown by the lightning strike’s force. The board knocked me over.”

Katherine Diaz, one of El Salvador’s top surfers, began surfing at age 9, the Associated Press reported.

“We raise a prayer for the eternal rest of her soul and we express our most sincere condolences to her family,” El Salvador’s National Institute for Sport said in a statement, CNN reported.

“Katherine embodied the joy and energy that make surfing so special and dear to us all, as a global ambassador of the sport,” the International Surfing Association said, according to Sky News.

Her funeral took place Sunday with flowers and her surfboard beside her coffin, CNN reported.

Surfers in El Salvador plan a “paddle out” event Tuesday to honor Katherine Diaz, according to the Associated Press.

Across the globe, around 2,000 people die each year from lightning strikes, according to National Geographic.