Czech skier Sarka Strachova announces retirement

Still at the top of her game, the slalom World Champion from Are 2007 Sarka Strachova announced in a video posted on her Facebook page that she is putting an end to her career as an active ski racer.

After a successful 15th World Cup season with two podiums (a third place in Zagreb and a second place in Squaw Valley), Strachova could finish her third season in a row in the Top 7 group in slalom, the seventh in total in her career. The 32 years old slalom specialist has been extremely constant in her skiing, as she finished in the Top 10 in every single race since January 2015 in Zagreb.

Indubitably, she was a great personality on the World Cup Tour. She impressed by her perseverance, especially with a comeback after a benign brain tumor, and was continuously adapting and pushing the sport forward, breaking all the records for her home country the Czech Republic. But now, she says that the motivation is no longer there, that it gets harder to prioritise training and skiing over other things life has to offer and that she feels that it’s the right moment to say goodbye to the World Cup.

Strachova’s achievements on the World Cup Tour, where she earned a total of 17 slalom podiums including two wins in Aspen (2008 and 2009) will stay in the books. But also her successes in special events impressed. Participating in nine different World Championships, she was able to grab a World Champion title in Are 2007, and three more medals (3rd 2005 Santa Caterina, 2nd 2009 Val d’Isère, 3rd 2015 Vail / Beaver Creek). At the Olympic Games in Vancouver 2010, she also earned the bronze medal in her favourite discipline.

We wish Sarka all the best for this new page of the amazing story of her life.