Winter sports withdrawal in one season before the Olympic Games are unusual. The incentive is too great to make it to the Olympics again. A few winter athletes still ended their career in spring 2025.
Markus Eisenbichler: heights, depths – and bye
In the end, tears flowed – and the champagne: after 20 years in the DSV squad Markus Eisenbichler ended his successful career. For the grand finale when ski flying in Planica, “Eisei” flew to second place with the team. And then had to admit and in a staggering voice: “I just have to fight with myself.”
With six World Cup titles, the 33-year-old is still a record world champion in German ski jumping history. For years, “Eisei” belonged to the top of the world. At the 2022 Winter Olympics, he won bronze in the team competition. “Ski jumping was my life – with ups and downs, with emotions that can hardly be put into words”the character head, which was loved by the fans because of its sayings and clear language, and whose stubbornness made some coaches despair.
Finally, Eisenbichler’s career stalled again and again. At times he was deleted from the World Cup squad, but tried to fight back again and again. He also missed the Nordic Ski World Cup. Nevertheless, Eisenbichler remains one of the most successful ski jumper in the DSV history.
Stephan Leyhe: Tourist 2019 stops
This season is also over for him: Stephan Leyhe Ended his ski jumping career at the age of 33. “There were a lot of nice moments in my career, which I will always like to remember”says the Hesse. He took part in the four -hill tour ten times, became third in the overall ranking in 2019, and he won bronze and silver in the team at the Winter Olympics. He celebrated his only World Cup victory in his home country: at the Mühlenkopf in Willingen. He now wants to return there.
Johannes Thingnes Bö and Tarjei Bö – family instead of Olympia
A few records of exceptional biathlete Ole Einar Björndalen becomes Johannes Thingnes Bö can no longer crack-the 94 World Cup single victories, the 199 World Cup podiums (with seasons), the 13 Olympic medals. Bö would still have the talent and physical fitness for these records at the age of 31. He demonstrated this again at the last World Cup of this winter in Oslo when he won his 80th victory in the sprint. And Björndals was already 43 when he celebrated his last single podium. But Bös are more important. Things that no longer have so much to do with biathlon.
“Now it’s time to put my family in the foreground”said the superstar of the past few years at a press conference in January in Ruhpolding. “In the last six seasons I have brought top sport and family life under one roof. It was fantastic, but also very challenging”explained Bö: “Originally I had planned to continue for another year, but preparation for the Olympic Games demands even more from my fellow human beings.”
Celebrate Tarjei Bö and Johannes Thingnes Bö (right).
At the World Cup in Lenzerheide with his titles 21, 22 and 23, Bö had crowned the sole record world champion. With seven Olympic medals and five overall World Cup victories, he is already fat in the biathlon history book. Now he wanted to be more for the family. Like Johannes Thingnes also explained Tarjei Bö His resignation, also for family reasons. On the last World Cup weekend in Oslo there was a big farewell party for both. “We are so happy that the final is here on the Holmenkollen. We will never forget you all for the rest of our life. I will never forget this day”said the 36-year-old Tarjei Bö, 15-time World Cup winner and 27-time World Cup medalist.
Nordic combination: Dominator Riiber goes
Also Jarl Magnus Riiber Would have had a good chance of further medals at the 2026 Olympics. Similar to Johannes Thingnes Bö, the Nordic combiner dominated his sport for many years, won the overall World Cup five times, celebrated 85 World Cup victories and eleven World Cup titles and Olympic silver 2022.
At the age of 27, Riiber is also younger than Bö. But health does not play with Riiber: “I have a chronic illness that I have to live with the rest of my life”said the Norwegian at a press conference at the end of January about his disease crawling disease. He will not fulfill the dream of the first Olympic gold: “This is no longer important to me now. I would now have to bring more health victims.”
Nordic combination: Würth says goodbye “pride”
From the German combination team has Svenja Würth adopted. The 31-year-old started as a ski jumper, then switched to the combiners and drew a very positive conclusion at the end of the career. She is proud. Proud of it “That I could get the German championship title in two sports, that I was involved in two different sports at World Championships and that I managed top ten results in two sports in the World Cup.”
She won her greatest success in 2017 when she won the ski jumping team with Carina Voigt, Markus Eisenbichler and Andreas Wellinger in Lahti World Cup. In the Nordic combination, she made it eleven times into the top 10, her best placement was an eighth place at the World Cup in Lillehammer 2023.
Feature of ice: Pechstein ended Record career
Audio: RBB24 Inforadio | 04.03.2025 | Holger Gerska
Claudia Pechstein can show significantly more success than Würth: The speed of ice is multiple record athlete of her sport. The multiple Olympic champion, 42-World Cup medalist, 41-time German champion and with eight participation German record Olympic participants ended her career in early March and at the age of 53. “It is enough now”said the Berliner at her farewell press conference.
This was preceded by an agreement with the ISU ISU ice skating world. The association had blocked Pechstein in summer 2009 due to striking blood samples for doping. Pechstein assured her innocence and was able to demonstrate a rare blood disease that is responsible for the striking blood values. Against ISU, she had a struggle for compensation in the millions for years. Until the beginning of March – Pechstein and the association agreed. Nothing became known about the sum of the agreement. “I always said that when everything is over, I stop. So I can now hang the ice skates on the nail and stop”said Pechstein.
Ski Alpin: Stefano Gross, departure with announcement
Most of them were already aware of the night slalom in Schladming that the career of Stefano Gross will soon come to an end. At the finish, the Italian went on his knees and kissed the snow. In mid -March he officially announced his end of his career. He was part of the World Cup circus for 17 years, and he was on the podium twelve times and took part in three Winter Olympics.
At the age of 38 he ends his career. The farewell is not easy. It is speculated about differences with the Italian association: “I had expected that I would be treated differently in the team after so many years and I had no fun. All of this prompted me to decide and end my career.” What exactly says with his statement is not known.
Source: Dirk Hofmeister/Marjorie Maurer