Austrian Alpine skier Hannes Reichelt kept winning races after returning from several severe knee and back injuries that hampered his career.
The 2015 World champion’s latest setback, however, was one too many.
The 40-year-old Reichelt said Wednesday he will retire at this week’s World Cup Finals in Lenzerheide, Switzerland.
The announcement came six years after the Austrian won the biggest prize of his two-decade-long career — super-G gold at the world championships in Beaver Creek, Colorado.
“I’ve got the feeling that after 20 years on the World Cup the time has come to leave,” Reichelt said.
He failed to get back to the top level after damaging his right knee in a downhill crash in December 2019 and didn’t make the Austrian team for the worlds in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, last month.
“In races I was struggling more and more to get to the limit. To me it was clear: I race to the fullest or not at all,” Reichelt said.
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Reichelt did not qualify for this season’s World Cup Finals but was planning to ski down the super-G course on a farewell run as one of the forerunners ahead of Thursday’s race.
Reichelt has won 13 World Cup races, including the classic downhill in Kitzbühel, and had 44 podium results.
The Austrian won his home race in January 2014 while suffering from back pains. He could barely stand straight after finishing and needed surgery for a herniated disk the following day, ruling him out for the Sochi Olympics.
Another of his wins came in a super-G in 2005, only nine months after tearing an ACL.
Reichelt is also known for earning one the most unlikely discipline title wins in the 54-year history of the World Cup.
In 2008, he arrived at the Finals in Bormio, Italy, trailing leader Didier Cuche by 99 points in the super-G standings. Reichelt won the race to earn 100 points, and Cuche was ultimately bumped into 16th place by his Swiss teammate Daniel Albrecht — with only the top 15 earning World Cup points.
It would be the only crystal globe award for Reichelt, who also won super-G silver at the 2011 Worlds.
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Kenyan Diana Kipyokei was banned six years and had her 2021 Boston Marathon title stripped for a positive drug test and then providing false information to anti-doping officials.
Kipyokei, 28, tested positive for a metabolite of triamcinolone acetonide (a corticosteroid) from a sample given after she won the Boston Marathon in October 2021.
Kipyokei then provided false and/or misleading information in trying to explain her positive test, “including fake documentation which she alleged came from a hospital,” according to the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), which handles doping cases in track and field.
She chose not to challenge the charges, according to the AIU.
Kipyokei’s provisional suspension while her case played out was announced Oct. 14, but it began June 27. Her six-year ban has been backdated to June 27.
The Boston Athletic Association, which announced Oct. 14 that Kipyokei would be stripped of her Boston Marathon title should her case not be overturned on appeal, followed up on Tuesday to officially disqualify her.
Kipyokei, in her World Marathon Major debut, won Boston in 2:24:45, beating countrywoman Edna Kiplagat by 24 seconds. Kiplagat, then 41, has been upgraded to champion, making her the oldest runner to win the Boston Marathon in its history dating to 1897.
Kipyokei, who has no registered results since the 2021 Boston Marathon, is the second Boston Marathon winner to be stripped of their title in the last decade. Kenyan Rita Jeptoo also had her 2014 win disqualified for doping.
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Very disappointed robbed my joy my smile my happiness and the beautiful decorated tape at the finish line https://t.co/zzTVJMCYEy
— Edna Kiplagat (@KiplagatEdna) October 14, 2022
The Sapporo 2030 Winter Olympic and Paralympic bid will reportedly undergo a review that may include a nationwide survey asking the public whether it wants to host the Games, the Sapporo mayor and the Japanese Olympic Committee announced in a press conference Tuesday.
The bid “will be pausing active promotion,” according to a Reuters interpretation of Japanese media reports.
The decisions were made in response to two factors, according to Japanese reports: the IOC announcing two weeks ago that the 2030 Olympic and Paralympic host decision will be delayed beyond next summer. Plus, the recent investigation into corruption related to Tokyo being awarded the 2020 Summer Games back in 2013.
Sapporo mayor Katsuhiro Akimoto said officials have not given up on the 2030 bid, the priority is to gain public support and that the will of the people will be respected, according to reports.
Last March, Hokkaido residents were surveyed regarding Sapporo hosting the 2030 Winter Games. Sapporo, the 1972 Winter Olympic host, is the capital of the island of Hokkaido. By mail, 52.2 percent said they supported it. Online, that number was 56.5 percent. In person, it was 65.5 percent support.
A possible follow-up survey would be broader, possibly nationwide, Akimoto reportedly said Tuesday.
There are three interested parties for the 2030 Winter Games, the IOC said on Dec. 6 without naming them. Previously, Salt Lake City, Sapporo and Vancouver were confirmed as bids. Then in October, the British Columbia government said it would not support a Vancouver bid, a major setback, though organizers did not say that decision ended the bid.
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee has said it prefers 2034 for Salt Lake City, but can step in for 2030 if asked.
Italy will host the next Winter Games in 2026 in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo.
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