The German speed skater Patrick Beckert is giving up the post-Olympic season because of back problems. The 32-year-old Thuringian announced this on Tuesday on social media.
“After careful consideration and in close consultation with our team doctor, we decided to end the current season prematurely. At the moment I can’t call up my full performance potential due to injury,” Beckert wrote on Facebook.
The long-distance specialist, who holds the German records over 5,000 m and 10,000 m, has been struggling with back problems for a long time, and now he wants to “finally get rid of them completely so that I no longer have to make any compromises in training and competitions,” wrote Beckert .