The great Austrian ski racer Matthias Mayer suddenly announced his retirement, with immediate effect, before he was due to race in a Super G at Bormio on Thursday.
Mayer is one of the current greats in the ski racing world, having won gold at three consecutive Olympics, most recently at Beijing in February.
Matthias Mayer after Sochi win.
Mayer made his surprise announcement shortly before the men’s World Cup super-G at Bormio was due to get underway, he had drawn bib number 6, but did not race.
“Last season was fantastic with the third Olympic gold medal and I have started well in the new season and I’m satisfied. But it’s enough,” 32-year-old Mayer told Austrian TV, adding, “I’ve done my last course inspection today and that’s it. I don’t have that fire anymore. The sport is very important for the people and it should go on, but for me it’s OK.”
Mayer won the Olympic downhill title in Sochi in 2014 when he was a relatively unknown young racer. He took the super-G gold in Pyeongchang 2018 and held his title in the Beijing Super G earlier this year. Having also won bronze in the Beijing downhill he is now Austria’s most successful skier at the Olympics.
MATHIAS MAYER
Mayer also has 11 World Cup wins including the classics at Kitzbuhel and Wengen and a previous win in Bormio.
He is the son of Helmut Mayer who took silver in the first ever Olympic Super-G in 1988.
Separately, Swiss Olympic ski champion Beat Feuz, who took gold at the Beijing Downhill earlier this year, had already announced that he will retire after the Hahmnankamm in Kitzbuhel next month.
