Feierabend and Thalmann say goodbye

The 28 year-old athlete from Engelberg announced her retirement from ski racing after today’s National Championships.

Her successful career started with a Junior World Champion title in slalom in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 2009. She went on with strong performances in slalom and in the speed disciplines, earning a 4th place in the alpine combined at Lenzerheide in 2016. In the following season, two additional 4th places came in the slalom in Killington and at the World Championships in St. Moritz in the alpine combined. But her best season in career was the recently ended winter 2017/18, where she finished 10th of the slalom and 23rd of the Overall rankings, and won gold in the alpine team event at the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games.

Denise Feierabend decides to quite ski racing at the top of her career. “During the season, I felt that it became harder and harder to put in all the effort to continue at the best level, and the distance to my friends and family became more difficult to handle. This is when I started to think about the future and ultimately made the decision to retire,” said the triple Swiss champion (SG 2016, SL 2015, AC 2015).

On this exact same day, another tech specialist said goodbye to the World Cup; Carmen Thalmann. After an ACL-tear in her left knee in November 2016, the Austrian tech whiz worked hard for a comeback on the World Cup Tour and managed to crack the Top 30 in slalom, finishing the season on the 24th rank. But the cheerful athlete from Osttirol said that she had a hard time to keep smiling during that tough season and that she is ready for something new. A fourth place in the slalom in Lienz in 2015 and the 7th place at the World Championships in Vail / Beaver Creek in the same season, will probably remain some of her best memories in career.

We wish both Denise and Carmen all the best for whatever is coming next.

Before them, other athletes had decided to retire (see here), and more followed in the next week (see here).