The French athletes were part of a team filming the reality show Dropped, a survivalist programme which was being filmed in northwestern Argentina.
Tragically they were killed when their helicopters reportedly collided in mid-air near Villa Castelli in La Rioja province, about 730 miles north west of Buenos Aires.
All 10 people on board - eight French nationals and two Argentine pilots - were killed.
“Apparently, the two helicopters collided as they were filming. There are no survivors,” provincial spokesman Horacio Alarcon told AFP.
He said the weather conditions were good and the cause of the crash was unknown.
French president Francois Hollande said in a statement published on the website of the French daily Liberation: "The brutal demise of our compatriots is an immense sadness."
The statement identified the remaining victims as Laurent Sbasnik, Lucie Mei-Dalby, Volodia Guinard, Brice Guilbert and Edouard Gilles, as well as Argentine pilots Juan Carlos Castillo and Roberto Abate.
The athletes were part of a team filming the reality show Dropped, a survivalist programme with several versions across Europe, said the mayor of Villa Castelli, Andres Navarrete.
The other stars participating in the show were swimmer Alain Bernard, cyclist Jeannie Longo, footballer Sylvain Wiltord, snowboarder Anne-Flore Marxer and figure skater Philippe Candeloro.
None of them were among the victims.
Sylvain, a former Arsenal footballer, later tweeted: "I'm sad for my friends, I'm trembling, I'm horrified, I have no words, I don't want to say anything."
Police and firefighters were still working to recover the victims’ bodies when night fell, using floodlights to illuminate the area, a police source told AFP.
“It’s been four hours since the collision and (the wreckage) is still on fire. There’s smoke rising from the helicopters,” said a police source at the scene.
Our thoughts are with the friends and families of all those involved in this terrible tragedy.