Wave of retirements in German ski jumping: After Olympic champion Marinus Kraus, three promising young talents have also ended their careers.
Kilian Märkl (22), Claudio Haas (21) and Quirin Modricker (21) are giving up their skis and will no longer go hunting from the ski jumps of this world in the coming winter. This was confirmed by the German Ski Association (DSV).
In particular, the resignations of Märkl and Haas are bitter for the young German ski jumpers, who have recently fallen behind the athletes from Slovenia and Austria anyway.
World Cup medals and notable successes
Märkl won gold in team jumping at the Junior World Championships in Lahti in 2019 together with Luca Roth, Philipp Raimund and Constantin Schmid. In 2020 he also jumped to bronze in the team at the World Championships in Oberwiesenthal.
Most recently, he competed in the Continental Cup and took a respectable 17th place in the 2021/2022 overall ranking. A timely promotion to the World Cup did not seem to be out of the question.
Haas, who won the 2020 World Cup medal together with Märkl, drew attention to himself especially at the 2020 German Championships when he achieved the third-largest distance in the first round and was only two meters behind the superstars Karl Geiger and Markus Eisenbichler. In the Continental Cup, however, it was only enough for him to achieve a few notable successes.
Professional future still open
Modricker recently had no more squad status at DSV. Speculations about a possible end to his career have been going on for a long time.
The man from Hinterzarten could not establish himself in the Continental Cup. 22nd place in the Czech Frenstat 2019 was his best result.
Modricker left his professional future open to the “skisprung-news.de” portal.
Marinus Kraus, team Olympic champion from Sochi, announced his resignation on Monday. Severin Freund, Richard Freitag, Adrian Sell and Carina Vogt will also not be starting next winter.