Biathlon superstar Tiril Eckhoff caused a bang with her announced career end on Wednesday. Now the ten-time world champion has revealed how her decision came about.
In an interview with “TV2”, the 32-year-old explained that she had been thinking about retiring from biathlon since January.
“It’s one thing to train, but the other thing is shooting, which takes an insane amount of time and concentration, and that’s when I realized it was over,” revealed Eckhoff.
Biathlon: “Difficult time” for Tiril Eckhoff
After a corona infection last year, the former overall World Cup winner had to struggle with massive sleep problems. In this biathlon season, Eckhoff did not complete a single race.
“I was ill for a long time and it was a difficult time,” the Norwegian told the newspaper “Verdens Gang” about her ordeal in 2022. “I’ve never been so depressed as this year.” In the meantime things would be going “much better” again, according to Eckhoff.
The Scandinavians are among the most successful biathlon stars of all time. Among other things, Eckhoff won two gold medals at the Olympic Winter Games and was crowned world champion ten times.
“Reality show” instead of biathlon?
“I’m proud. Very proud of what I’ve achieved and very happy I finished it in style. Knowing that I’ve experienced almost everything as a biathlete makes this decision easier for me to make.” , Eckhoff looked back.
Speaking about her future life, the Norwegian biathlon legend said with a wink: “It’s a bit scary so we’ll see what comes up and what I’ll work as. I’ve been pondering a bit so I guess I’ll be at one join the reality show.”