At just 30 years old
She suffers from a syndrome: ski ace ends her career
12/27/2025 – 5:17 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
Almost five years ago, Eva Urevc celebrated the greatest success of her career. Since then, the Slovenian has repeatedly struggled with problems. Now she’s stopping.
The Tour de Ski in Italy starts on Sunday. The best cross-country skiers in the world will fight for victory in the classic until January 4th. Eva Urevc, on the other hand, is not there. A few days before the start, the 30-year-old Slovenian announced her immediate end to her career.
“Closing this chapter hasn’t been easy,” she wrote on Instagram. “Cross-country skiing was my whole world for so long. It gave me meaning, structure, friendships and memories that I will carry with me forever.”
Urevc cited her own health as the reason for her decision. “In recent seasons, my body and mind have been louder than my ambitions. I’ve struggled with health issues that kept setting me back, just when I thought I’d found my rhythm again,” she added. According to her own statements, the 30-year-old suffers from RED syndrome, the “Relative Energy Deficiency Syndrome”. In athletes, this leads to hormonal disorders, psychological stress or increases the risk of injury due to too much training or too little eating.
Urevc was particularly troubled by the mental consequences. “Mentally, I was exhausted. Constantly struggling with the same problems was draining me so much that my motivation – the fire that once burned so brightly – slowly faded,” she revealed. “I realized I was no longer waking up excited. I was waking up tired. Tired of fighting, tired of forcing myself to keep going.”
That’s why she now made the “most difficult decision of my life” to end her career. Urevc is one of the best cross-country skiers in her country, won bronze in the 2021 World Cup in the team sprint, and was particularly involved in the 2020/2021 World Cup. She also took part in the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing, but did not win a medal.