The Slovenian skier Meta Hrovat surprisingly announced the end of her career – although she still had her career ahead of her. The slalom specialist made this decision when she was just 24 years old.
Meta Hrovat no longer wants to work in professional skiing, as she confessed in an emotional statement on her Instagram profile: “I’ve reached a point in my life where I’m no longer willing to dedicate myself to the sport to such an extent that I can achieve the desired results,” explained the Slovenian.
What she finds “personally a little harder to accept is that I’ve lost the sparkle in my eyes and the desire that has driven me down the path that I’ve walked my entire career.” The decision was “certainly one of the hardest” in her life: “I dedicated myself to this sport with all my heart.”
However, Hrovat is “infinitely happy” to have made this decision in “a relatively healthy condition”. Her knee alone is still causing her “problems” after an injury, but this was not the reason for her resignation.
Meta Hrovat took part in FIS races for the first time when she was 15 and made her World Cup debut in 2015. Her special disciplines include slalom and giant slalom.
Twice she won a gold medal in slalom at junior ski championships, once she was junior world champion with the Slovenian team. She won bronze in combined at the 2016 Winter Youth Olympic Games in Lillehammer.
In the World Cup, the young Slovenian has climbed onto the podium four times in her career and was among the top ten drivers in a competition 19 times. In 2019/20 and 2020/21 she achieved her best result in the overall World Cup with place 25. Another personal milestone: At the last Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, she finished seventh in the giant slalom.