After many injuries
Olympic ski jumping champion ends career
12/26/2025 – 4:52 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
Almost four years ago, Daniel Huber celebrated the greatest success of his career. Since then he has had a difficult time in sport – which is now coming to an end.
Daniel Huber is quitting: The Austrian Olympic ski jumping champion announced the end of his career on Friday. In a statement from the Austrian Ski Association (ÖSV for short), the reason given was “a changed focus that is more oriented towards family and new challenges”.
Huber has been part of the Ski Jumping World Cup since the beginning of 2016, winning several individual World Cups and even more as a team. The 32-year-old celebrated his greatest success almost four years ago in Beijing. At the Winter Olympics he won the gold medal as a team. The Austrian quartet around Huber, Jan Hörl, Manuel Fettner and Stefan Kraft left the Slovenians (silver) and the four DSV Eagles (bronze) behind them.
Huber also won World Championship silver twice and took precious metal with him in the team both in Seefeld (Austria) in 2019 and in Oberstdorf two years later.
But his last World Cup participation was a year and a half ago. A cartilage fracture in the knee forced an operation shortly before the start of the 2024/25 season, which ended the season prematurely. Particularly bitter: He had to undergo knee surgery in 2022. During his career he also had to struggle with a torn cruciate ligament and a blocked joint in his hip. This year he made another attempt and took part in the second-class Continental Cup in September. But apparently the pain was too severe.
ÖSV head coach Andreas Widhölzl regretted his resignation. “It’s a shame that we’re losing a very successful ski jumper in our ranks with Daniel. I’m sure that another World Cup comeback would have been possible for him,” he said. “But it is also clear that we have an extremely high performance density at the top. In this respect, his decision is absolutely understandable.”