Fabian Rießle is part of a special generation of Nordic combined athletes who celebrated many successes. But there will be no more for the 33-year-old.
Fabian Rießle is calling it quits. The German combined athlete has announced the end of his career. He will be seen one last time where the 2018 Olympic team champion and three-time Nordic Combined World Champion celebrated his World Cup debut in January 2009.
“At the home World Cup in Schonach, I will be on the starting line for the last time on Sunday, January 28th,” the 33-year-old wrote on Instagram on Monday: “I am looking forward to celebrating my farewell with you.”
Rießle (Breitnau) can look back on a career rich in medals. At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, he won silver with the DSV team and bronze in the Großchance individual event. Four years later, in Pyeongchang, Eric Frenzel, Vinzenz Geiger and Johannes Rydzek were crowned team Olympic champions. He also secured another individual medal in South Korea with second place on the large hill.
Most recently only in the Continental Cup
He and the team made it onto the World Cup podium a total of six times. He won his last World Cup medal with bronze in the team sprint in Oberstdorf 2021.
In the end, however, the big successes failed to materialize. Rießle left last season early. In the current World Cup, he was not called up to the DSV squad at the season opener in Kuusamo, Finland. In November he moved up to the German squad in Lillehammer, Norway, but did not make it into the top 30 in either competition, which meant he slipped into the second-tier Continental Cup.