April 23, 2011 – Every fourth year, the FIS disciplines have a season marked by the absence of the World Championships and Olympic Games, which often encourages the retirement of top athletes who decide to bring down the final curtain on their distinguished careers. This spring is no exception and the retiring stars include many who have played a key role in defining the sport of skiing over the past years. Here is an overview of a few of these retiring stars in the three FIS Nordic disciplines…

Cross-Country
The upcoming World Cup season 2011/2012 will take place without some major cross-country stars. These include triple sprint World Cup winner, World Championship and Olympic medalist Petra Majdic from Slovenia. Wearing “Goodbye, I love you” on her back at the World Cup Final in Falun, Majdic concluded an amazing career in the age of 31 years. Despite not always having luck on her side, the charismatic skier took two sprint medals at the FIS World Championships – a silver medal in 2007 and a bronze medal in 2011. With enormous effort she also won the bronze medal in the sprint at the 2010 Games, after an injury sustained just before the race.

Another three top athletes who will retire to focus on other challenges include 2009 sprint world champion Arianna Follis (ITA, 33), 2006 Olympic team sprint champion Lina Andersson (SWE, 30) and 2001 sprint world champion Pirjo Muranen (former Manninen, FIN, 30). French skier Celia Bourgeois, who started her career as biathlete, also announced her retirement last week in the age of 28.

On the men’s side, 2005 world champion Vincent Vittoz (35) retired from professional skiing following the French national championships. The Frenchman always skied with passion and heart, competing at the World Cup level for the past 16 years. Besides his world champion title in pursuit, he won seven individual World Cup competitions and collected a total of 23 World Cup podiums. Vittoz’s long-time teammate, Emmanuel Jonnier (35) also announced his retirement. Jonnier can look back on a great career with three World Cup podiums and several top 5 spots in title events.

Ski Jumping
In ski jumping, the retiring athletes celebrated a total of 100 World Cup victories, having participated in 1,553 individual World Cup competitions, achieved 261 podium results, and won 14 medals both at the FIS World Championships and Olympic Games. Michael Uhrmann (GER, 32), Adam Malysz (POL, 33), Janne Ahonen (FIN, 33), Andreas Kuettel (SUI, 31), Primoz Peterka (SLO, 32), and Harri Olli (FIN, 26) as well as Remy Francais (SUI, 22) have now ended their careers.

While Olli and Francais never completely realized their outstanding talent, the other five represent a true end of an era in ski jumping.

Uhrmann was always there when his team needed him, becoming Olympic champion with the team in 2002 and team world champion in 2001. However, whenever “Uhri” was on his way to the very top, destiny seemed to play tricks on him. He missed an Olympic medal on the normal hill in 2006 by only 0.1 points. In 2007, he was in the form of his life when he fell during training at the World Championships and was injured. In 2011 at Oslo he was close to gold in the team competition but had a bad jump and then the final round was cancelled – he finished fourth! It turned out to be the final jump of his career.

Janne Ahonen won everything more than once. A five-time winner of the 4-Hills-Tournament, two-time overall World Cup winner with three World Championship titles, the Finnish star only lacks one crowning achievement on his list of palmares – an Olympic gold medal.

Andreas Kuettel was always unique from the other jumpers in a pleasant way. Always knowing the right things to say, he also knew that ski jumping isn’t everything. Most of the time in the shadow of his more famous countryman Simon Ammann, there was probably no athlete who was not happy for Kuettel when he became world champion on the large hill in Liberec in 2009.

Primoz Peterka had his best days some time ago. In his last season he competed in the Continental Cup. At the peak of his career, he fought for victories with Ahonen and Co., leading his home country to bronze medals at the World Championships and Olympic Games.

Last but certainly not least, Adam Malysz, collected medals during a remarkable decade from Lahti 2001 to Oslo 2011. Malysz truly retired in top form, with 39 World Cup victories, three World Championship medals and four Olympic medals in his bag and a third place finish in his final competition in Planica!

Nordic Combined
The 2011/2012 season for Nordic Combined will get underway without some charismatic personalities such as Austria’s Olympic champion Felix Gottwald (35) and four-time world champion Ronny Ackermann (GER, 33). Also leaving the Nordic Combined family are Ronny Heer (SUI, 30), 2009 team world champion Norihito Kobayashi (JPN, 28), Sebastian Haseney (GER, 32), Petter Tande (NOR, 25) and Ole-Christian Wendel (NOR, 19).

Another Combined athlete Kaarel Nurmsalu from Estonia is moving to ski jumping following in the footsteps of David Zauner (AUT) and Anssi Koivuranta (FIN) who have successfully transitioned from Nordic combined to ski jumping.

Includes contributions by Sandra Spitz, Horst Nilgen and Egon Theiner