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THURSDAY, AUGUST 22, 2013
EXTREME SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
British stuntman Mark Sutton parachutes into the Olympic Stadium dressed as James Bond during the Olympic Games 2012 Opening Ceremony. Sutton died in an accident in the Swiss Alps while flying a special wing suit. Online extreme sports broadcaster Epic TV said he died during a gathering it had organized involving 20 wing suit pilots who were being filmed as they jumped from helicopters. Swiss police confirmed that a 42-year-old Briton died Aug.14, in a fall near Trient in the Valais region.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Jumper dies in Alps accident
ASSOCIATED PRESS
He wasn't a competitor, but Mark Sutton still got one of the biggest cheers of the 2012 Olympics.
Sutton, who was killed during a wingsuit jump in the Alps this week, was the skydiver who parachuted into London's Olympic Stadium during the opening ceremony dressed as James Bond, alongside another stuntman disguised as Queen Elizabeth II.
It was the punchline to a filmed sequence in which Daniel Craig's Bond escorted the real queen from Buckingham Palace onto a helicopter — and, for many, the highlight of director Danny Boyle's ceremony.
Swiss police confirmed that Sutton died Wednesday when he crashed into a rocky ridge near Trient in the southwestern Valais region. They gave his age as 42.
Boyle on Thursday paid tribute to Sutton, saying he and fellow diver Gary Connery had "made the stadium gasp ... and left indelible memories for people from all walks of life all over the world."
Wingsuits — aerodynamic jumpsuits that make wearers look like winged superheroes — allow fliers to jump from planes, helicopters and occasionally cliffs and soar long distances before opening parachutes to land.
"The show was built from so many contributions from so many people, none finer and braver than Mark Sutton," Boyle said. "On behalf of everyone in the show we were all honored to have worked with him and to have known him as a friend and a professional."
London 2012 chief Sebastian Coe said Sutton was "a consumate professional and team player" who
would be widely missed.
Online extreme sports broadcaster Epic TV said Sutton was killed during a gathering it had organized involving 20 wingsuit pilots who were filmed as they jumped from helicopters. The firm said Sutton's death was "a tragic loss for the global wingsuit community."
The former British Army officer with the Gurkha Rifles who worked as a derivatives adviser was an accomplished skydiver. He performed at the Olympics alongside his friend Gary Connery. Sutton was the tuxedo-clad Bond, while Connery wore a pink dress and wig to play the queen.
Connery told The Sun newspaper that he had lost a friend who was "smart, articulate and funny."
"In any sport where you share a common bond you can make friends in a heartbeat that last a lifetime," he was quoted as saying. "My relationship with Mark was like that."
Sutton was an experienced participant in the exhilarating but dangerous world of wingsuits jumping, and had worked with Connery on a bid to complete the first jump from an aircraft without a parachute. Sutton filmed Connery's successful attempt in May 2012.
Valais police, who are investigating Sutton's fatal accident, said crashed into a mountain ridge and fell to his death after jumping from a helicopter at 3,300 meters (10,800 feet)
Epic TV editor-in-chief Trey Cook said Sutton jumped with another diver who was wearing a camera, though the moment of impact had not been captured.
Debbie Rowe, Michael Jackson's former wife and mother of two of his children, leaves Los Angeles County Superior Court after testifying in the negligence lawsuit filed by Jackson's mother, Katherine Jackson, against AEG Live Aug. 14 in Los Angeles. Rowe broke into tears when she took the witness stand in the civil case and described the singer's fear of pain and reliance on physicians. She said the pop star trusted doctors to prescribe pain medication to him, but they sometimes tried to outdo each other while losing sight of Jackson's care.
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Jackson's ex-wife admits drug concerns
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Michael Jackson's ex-wife acknowledged Aug. 15 that she was concerned that some of his frequent medical visits were motivated more by a desire for drugs than by the treatments he received.
Debbie Rowe testified during the trial of a lawsuit that she told Jackson about her concerns when he would go to his longtime dermatologist more than once a week in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Rowe worked in the office of the dermatologist, Dr. Arnold Klein.
Rowe said, adding that she was concerned he might be in search of drugs rather than treatments for blemishes with collagen injections. "I didn't necessarily see what he wanted to have done."
"I didn't understand why he would come in twice in one week."
Rowe has offered a conflicting portrait of Jackson's medical treatments during her testimony, saying earlier that she never saw him engage in doctor shopping or request specific pain medications. She said many of the visits were legitimately tied to treatments for the skin-lightening condition vitiligo and scars he sustained after being burned during a Pepsi commercial shoot.
kowe, clutching a tissue and breaking down at times, described Jackson as suffering debilitating pain throughout the nearly 20 years that the pair were close friends.
She said her husband trusted his doctors and depended on them to give him proper medications.
"When it came to the pain ... it was more begging for relief than anything." Rowe said. "He respected doctors so he wouldn't question what they were doing."
Rowe is the mother of the singer's two oldest children, Prince and Paris Jackson.
ried from 1996 to 1999.
She is testifying in a lawsuit filed by Jackson's mother against AEG Live LLC, the promoter of Jackson's ill-fated "This Is It" comeback concerts.
She and the pop star were mar-
Rowe hugged Katherine Jackson and held her hand during a break in testimony.
Rowe was called to the witness stand by AEG Live attorneys but told the jury on Aug. 14 that she was not testifying for either side and wouldn't have come to court if she hadn't received a subpoena.