“I’m happy to just be home soon”
German record world champion calls it a day after the Olympics
December 27, 2025 – 6:16 p.mReading time: 1 min.
Katharina Schmid has shaped German ski jumping for years. She wants to do the same at the Olympics. Then she stops.
Record world champion Katharina Schmid has announced the end of her ski jumping career after the current Olympic season. The 29-year-old announced this on Saturday.
At a press conference in Fischen im Allgäu, Schmid explained: “Above all, I was able to experience and celebrate a lot of successes in my sport – ski jumping will always be something very special for me and will remain part of my life.” She added: “I notice that I’m now satisfied with my sporting activities. I’m happy to just be home soon.”
Schmid – then still called Katharina Althaus – made her World Cup debut in December 2011 and has since achieved 19 victories, most recently in January 2025 in Villach. Her greatest success was the World Championship title in individual jumping in 2023 in Planica. Since 2015, she has also won six more World Cup gold medals in team competitions. She won silver in the individual at the Winter Olympics in 2018 and 2022, but also experienced disappointments, such as disqualification in the 2022 mixed competition in Beijing.
Together with Carina Vogt, who stepped down in 2022, Schmid shaped an era in German women’s ski jumping. Both lead the record list in ski jumping, with Schmid winning seven and Vogt five world championship titles. Schmid’s dream of taking part in a women’s Four Hills Tournament remains unfulfilled, as a full-fledged tour is not scheduled to take place until the winter of 2026/27. Her final opportunity to win Olympic gold will come in February at the competitions in Predazzo.