Canadian Olympic Medalist Edi Podivinsky's brother was killed in a ski accident. It happened at a ski resort in Montana.

Podivinsky got the news when his father called him to inform about his brother's death. It was when Podivinsky himself was skiing along with his own family. He might have been expecting many other phone calls since Canadian athlete Jan Hudec won the bronze at the Winter Olympics earlier. It was definitely a major achievement for Hudec who became the first athlete from Canada to win a medal in an alpine event at the Olympics since Podivinsky's bronze-winning performance in 1994.

On the contrary, it was not one of the reporters calling him to know about his opinion. It was his distressed father trying to break the tragic news to him. Tom was 48 when he was killed in the accident on Sunday, Feb 16. He was vacationing with his family, his children and wife when he met with the accident. He was an oil executive from Calgary. He was killed when, at Whitefish Mountain Resort, he fell into a tree well.

Tom was reported missing when he failed to attend a meeting previously planned. He was earlier separated from a friend whom he was skiing with around 12:30 in the afternoon. He was later discovered upside down in the tree well by ski patrollers, National Post reported. It was impossible for the patrollers to bring him back to life.

This is the second time in 2014 when someone was killed after falling in a tree well at Whitefish Mountain Resort. The resort authorities issued a statement on Monday, encouraging tourists to be extra careful while skiing amid the trees. According to the statement, the authorities were "deeply saddened" to know about the incident which they called an "unfortunate reminder" how risky tree wells could be for the sport.

Podivinsky said that his brother had lots of friends as he had "brought out the good" in all the people.