Kitchener Olympic diving hopeful dies near weekend music festival

A 24-year-old Olympic diving hopeful from Kitchener has died while attending a music festival in Bayham, Ont.

Elgin County OPP said they were called at around 6 p.m. on Saturday to an area near the event which was attended by hundreds at a farm on McQuiggan Line with a report a man didn’t have vital signs. He was subsequently pronounced dead

Police said it’s believed the man drowned although they are still awaiting autopsy results to confirm the cause of death. Investigators said the death isn’t being treated as suspicious.
The victim has been identified in online tributes as C.J. Moore.

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According to Moore’s obituary, he was set to graduate from the University of Waterloo in 2019 with a degree in biomedical engineering.

It described Moore as “a kind, sweet, funny soul” who was working on his dream of returning to diving and attempting to qualify for the Olympics.

Dive Ontario, an organization representing 11 clubs, released a statement saying Moore was one of its “most beloved divers” and that he “competed at the national and international level and always proudly represented both his province and country.”

Meanwhile, OPP said officers were called to the farm several times over the weekend to attend to noise complaints and a man who was being combative with St. Thomas Elgin paramedics.

The event, which had been dubbed Playground 2018, was promoted by a Toronto company called Wiggly Entertainment.

In a statement on the Facebook page for the event, the company wrote that it was still seeking reliable information about the what happened although it stated that the death occurred outside of the “event’s safety zone.”