March 12, 2017 (Quebec City, QC) – While not yet officially announced, top Canadian xc ski super star, Alex Harvey told his hometown newspaper, le Journal de Québec, that on the eve of the FIS Quebec City finals, he will likely retire after the 2018-19 season.

Next season sees the 2018 PyeongChang Olympic Games in South Korea followed by the Nordic World Championships in 2019. But the subsequent season features no major competitions and according to the report the timing will likely be the right for Harvey to retire.

“There will be the Games, for sure, then the following year will be the World Championship like this year. But after that, it will be a year without a championship or major competition, and the next Games will be too far (in 2022). That’s why, at the moment, I plan to stop in 2018-2019,” explained the 28-year-old Harvey.

“I don’t want to keep going at 95% of my capability; I don’t want to be on a downhill slope; I want to stop when I’m at the top of my game. As long as I don’t think that I’m at the summit, or if I think improvement is still possible, for sure I will continue. But after that, I don’t want to,” added the Quebec super star.

Harvey is on his way back to Quebec City from Europe where he recently won the prestigious 50km Freestyle finale race at the 2017 FIS Nordic Worlds in Lahti, Finland – the biggest win of his career – read more here. This season has been Harvey’s best yet and he sits third in the men’s overall rankings.

Harvey and the world’s best will soon be competing at the FIS Cross-country World Cup Finals in Quebec City, near his hometown of Saint Ferreol-les-Neiges, from Mar. 17-19.

He and teammate Devon Kershaw are currently on a plane flying back together for a press conference later today (May 12), to promote the finals and he will likely confirm his plan to retire at the end of the 2019 ski season. The duo won Canada’s first and their first FIS Nordic Worlds gold in the Team Sprint at Oslo, Norway in 2011. Harvey’s 50km Freestyle gold in Lahti was his first individual title victory and Canada’s as well.

Read the Journal de Québec story (in French) here.