Calling It a Day
Maria Höfl-Riesch's announcement of her retirement from competitive skiing didn't come as a shock. She talked about retiring from the sports after winning the crystal globe in 2011, being given to the overall champion of the Alpine Skiing World Cup. This is an annual event that determines the best all-around skier, but the German's greatest achievement happened during the Olympics.
Höfl-Riesch came to the scene after the 1998 Winter Olympics, when the German team had one of its greatest triumphs. Katja Seizinger won the gold medal in the women's downhill and combined events. She led the German skiers' sweep of the medals in the latter, with Martina Erti and Hilde Gerg taking the silver and bronze medals respectively. (Gerg won the gold in the slalom.) Seizinger would end up as the most successful female alpine skier from Germany. Höfl-Riesch almost matched her feat.
Höfl-Riesch have shown great promise at a young age, winning five gold medals in the Junior World Ski Championships. She was a medal contender in the 2006 Turin Games, but injuries caused her to miss it. She made up for that four years later in the Vancouver Games, winning the gold in the combined and slalom. She successfully defended her combined title in Sochi, also winning a silver medal in the super-G. She also had two golds and four bronzes from the World Championships, a biennial event.
Many believe that a skier winning twenty races or more in the World Cup circuit can be considered as one of the best. Höfl-Riesch won twenty seven races, with eighty appearances in the podium. She may be way behind Annemarie Moser-Proell, at sixty two wins, but she cared less about records and statistics. The Olympics was an exception, as the venues weren't used during the World Cup. So there was unfamiliarity with the racing ground, with the elements influencing the outcome of some races. This turned Croatia's Janica Kostelić into a legend, her four gold medals the most among female skiers. Höfl-Riesch's total was three golds and one silver.
Höfl-Riesch was one of the few skiers who competed in all five disciplines, namely the downhill, super-G, slalom, giant slalom, and combined. The giant slalom may be her weakest, but she had been consistent in the World Cup circuit in the last seven years. She was first in the overall standing in this year's World Cup, until the downhill race in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, where she crashed down. (Austria's Anna Fenninger won the overall title, her first.) Would the native of Garmisch-Partenkirchen changed her mind if she made it to the finish line? Probably not, as she wanted to end her career on a high note. An Olympic medal was what she wanted more, and she got two at Rosa Khutor.
Höfl-Riesch's departure won't leave a void in the German team; Viktoria Rebensburg, gold medal winner in the women's giant slalom in Vancouver, is still competing. Then there's Felix Neureuther, son of Rosi Mittermaier, another double Olympic winner. But it may take some time before there'll be another all-around skier like Höfl-Riesch.
