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Canadian pole vault record holder and 2015 world champion Shawn Barber has died at the age of 29 due to medical complications, his agent, Paul Doyle, confirmed to the Associated Press on Thursday (January 18).
Barber died at his home in Kingwood, Texas, on Wednesday (January 17) and had experienced health issues recently, though a cause of death has not yet officially been determined.
“More than just an incredible athlete, Shawn was such a good-hearted person that always put others ahead of himself,” Doyle said in a statement to the AP. “It’s tragic to lose such a good person at such a young age.”
Barber won consecutive NCAA indoor championships in 2014 and 2015, as well as the NCAA outdoor championship in 2015, while attending the University of Akron.
“Barber had fallen ill and had been experiencing poor health for some time,” Akron's athletic department said in a statement to CNN, adding that he was "a well-liked teammate and competitor."
The Canadian would later win gold at the Pan-Am Games and the IAAF World Championships in the summer of 2015, before making the final at the 2016 Rio de Janiero Olympics, which was won by Brazil's Thiago Braz. Barber set the current Canadian pole vaulting record of six meters (19 feet, 8.25 inches) at an event in Reno, Nevada, on January 15, 2016.