Son of Canadian Olympic Skier Dies After Japan Avalanche

A Canadian skier and up-and-coming filmmaker has died days after being dug out of an avalanche in Japan. Twenty-three-year-old Kai Smart was airlifted back home on March 19 to receive emergency treatment at Vancouver General Hospital, but his father says the extended time without oxygen during Smart's burial under the snow left no path to recovery, per People. "Our kind, brave and beautiful son and brother Kai is no longer with us," John Smart wrote on Instagram, calling the family "beyond heartbroken." The elder Smart is himself a past Olympian and member of the Canadian Ski Hall of Fame, per TMZ.

Kai Smart, who grew up in Whistler and graduated last year from the University of British Columbia in 2025, had recently finished Tien Shan Dream, a film about a high-altitude ski traverse in Kazakhstan that's now streaming on Apple TV+, Roku, and Outside TV. His father wrote that Kai had been an organ donor, and that his heart and other organs are now keeping four other people alive. Tributes poured in online, including from Olympic skier Gus Kenworthy and comedian Chelsea Handler. John Smart, who founded Momentum Ski Camps in Whistler, said the family plans a "Kai-sized celebration of life" there at a later date.