Shock death of US swimming champion being probed by authorities

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

The death of a former swimming champion in the US Virgin Islands is being investigated by authorities after she was found unresponsive by her boyfriend.

Jamie Cail, 42, was found lying on the floor of the house she shared with her boyfriend in the early hours of 21 February.

The partner, whose name has been withheld, “left a local bar to check on his girlfriend at their residence” at around 12.08am, the police said. Upon his arrival, he “discovered his girlfriend on the floor”.

The boyfriend rushed the Pan Pacific gold medallist to the Myrah Keating-Smith Clinic with the help of a friend.

Cail “succumbed to her ailment”, according to police, despite being administered CPR at the clinic.

The Virgin Islands police department was notified of a “dead on arrival” case at the clinic at about 2.39am. “This case is presently under investigation by the Criminal Investigation Bureau,” the police said in a statement.

So far, no additional information has been disclosed by the police.

Cail, originally from Claremont, New Hampshire, was a teenage swimming champion in the 1990s. She represented the US national B team at the FINA World Cup in Brazil and won a silver medal in the 800m freestyle event in 1998-99.

She won gold in 1997 at the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships.

Cail was reportedly a member of the University of Maine’s women’s swim team in the early 2000s.

The swimming star had worked at a coffee shop where she was cordial with people across the community, her friends said, according to local TV station WMUR.

“She was a very beautiful person,” one friend said.

“She had a huge heart. She was really loving and kind and well-loved and popular on the island and everybody knows her. Everyone from you know, older generational, local families to the younger people, everybody loved her.”