The investigation into the death of Muriel Furrer at the 2024 UCI Road World Championships in Zürich has been closed by Swiss authorities, it was announced on Monday.
The Swiss junior rider, 18, suffered a serious head injury after crashing in the women's junior road race on 26 September 2024, and died after being airlifted to hospital. She lay undiscovered for approximately 82 minutes after the accident took place, according to authorities.
Eighteen months on, the case has been closed, acccording to the public prosector's office in Zürich. No third-party involvement or "criminally relevant breach of duty" was found.
A press release, published on Monday, reads: "Based on the police investigation, the cyclist's crash 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. The accident occurred at approximately 11:04am., out of sight of support vehicles, race officials, spectators, and marshals.
"The injured cyclist lay hidden in the undergrowth and was not visible from the road. As was customary at previous editions of this World Cycling Championship, live tracking of all athletes was not used at the event. Therefore, the sudden disappearance of an athlete was not automatically reported. Due to these circumstances, the injured cyclist was not discovered until 12:26pm."
It continues: "According to the investigation, the first emergency responders arrived at the scene of the accident just minutes after the cyclist was found and immediately began providing initial medical care. This was followed by the rescue of the seriously injured cyclist from the undergrowth and preparations for her transport to the hospital.
"No evidence of any criminally relevant breaches of duty was found, either in connection with the time-consuming rescue operation or with the subsequent medical care at the University Hospital Zurich."
The 2024 Road World Championships continued as planned, at Furrer's family's request. In 2025, the UCI retired her dossard number 84 from the starting roster in future junior women's road Worlds. All riders at last year's Worlds raced with GPS trackers.
Furrer finished second in both the junior road race and time trial at Switzerland's national championships in 2024, and finished 44th in the junior time trial at the Worlds that year. It was her second and final year at junior level.
She rode for BIXS Performance Race Team, a Swiss mountain bike squad, and also competed in cyclo-cross, in which she also finished second in the Swiss nationals in 2023/4. Furrer was from Egg, just to the south of Zürich.
"Safety is not so easy, and this is why teams, organisers, and the UCI work together on this, and not to throw potatoes from one side to the other," UCI president David Lappartient said in a press conference after the incident in 2024. "Our common goal is to ensure safer cycling, because otherwise parents will be afraid to send their kids to practise cycling."
