Reigning Olympic speed champions Feuz and Mayer announce retirements

Men’s speed skiing will look very different in 2023, as two of the greats of the sport announced their retirements in December.

Former Olympic and World Champion Beat Feuz, 35, and triple Olympic gold medallist Matthias Mayer, 32, have both decided to hang up their competition skis.

Swiss great Feuz says that the classic events in Wengen and Kitzbuehel will be his last races. “Pushing the limits and risk has been my passion in skiing for years,” he said. “My emotion has often been the key to success.

“Now my feeling tells me, the physical limits have been reached. I am incredibly grateful that I was able to practice my passion for so long and experience so many emotional moments.”

Feuz’s greatest of those moments came at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, where he won the blue riband downhill race, with a blistering display of speed.

It was the only piece of hardware missing from one of the most consistent careers in the sport.

“I can’t think of anything more beautiful than flying home with a gold medal around my neck,” said Feuz. “I was standing perfectly on the skis, a dream came true.”

Feuz had been downhill world champion in 2017 –  another trademark power performance on home snow at St. Moritz – and won 16 FIS World Cup races in his career, 13 downhills and three super-G.

Nicknamed ‘Kugelblitz’ – ball of lightening – Feuz glided down mountains in the tuck position, often making it look effortless. He stood on the World Cup podium 58 times, and was downhill crystal globe winner four straight times (2018-2021).

Mayer goes out on a high

Mayer’s announcement came as more of a surprise: during the snow inspection for last Thursday’s race in Bormio, Italy, the Austrian ace decided that enough was enough.

“I was thinking I could stop and this was a good point for it,” he said. “I am very happy about my career and the last years. I did not start yesterday and it’s a good point to quit.

“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. I don’t have the fire any more.”

The Austrian was always a man for the big occasion. He saved his very best for the Olympic Games – winning gold in the downhill at Sochi 2014, gold in the super-G at Pyeongchang 2018, and retaining that title at Beijing 2022. He also won bronze in the Beijing downhill.

The Sochi win came before he’d even come first in a World Cup race. The Beijing brilliance meanwhile, made him the first male skier to lift titles at three consecutive Olympic Games, and elevated him to become Austria’s most-decorated Olympic Alpine medallist.