Jan Schmid hangs up his skis

After an incredibly successful season with three medals in Seefeld, 35-year-old Jan Schmid has decided it is time to end his career. Schmid’s World Championship coup with two silver and one gold medal came on the heels of his most successful season ever in 2017/18 when he finished second in the overall standings.

“I am beginning to be old and have been with the team for a long time. This winter, I had a World Championship like never before but the next year is without championships and I am too old to fight for the yellow bib”, Schmid explained to Norwegian broadcaster NRK. “It is great to be able to quit before I have to. I have to opportunity to leave on my own terms and with a great feeling.”

While Schmid was still undecided about this future in the last weeks of the season, his teammates and the team staff were the first ones to be informed in the past few days.

“I have always said I wanted to end my career before I turned 30. But with this team that I was a part of, it’s difficult to leave. You are travelling with good friends. I have been the grandfather of the team in the last few years but you are feeling younger as young athletes come into the team who give you a boost. I would like this team, my family and my sponsors that I was able to be a part of this for so long.”

Schmid, who started his World Cup career in Oberwiesenthal in 2001 started for Switzerland in the first years of his career, before changing his nationality to Norwegian, the country he has grown up in. He started in 269 World Cup evens in total and claimed five victories and 23 podium results. He was part of the Norwegian Olympic team in 2006, 2010 and 2018 and won Olympic silver with the team in PyeongChang 2018. He took part in seven FIS Nordic World Ski Championships and famously medals spanning a decade, beginning in Liberec in 2009 and ending with his Seefeld triumph in 2019.

But also the future seems bright for Schmid, as Sports Director Ivar Stuan has already offered him a job: “We would like to get him into a kind of ’Sports Science’ role. We missed this a bit in the past and Jan is a really smart guy who would be ideal”, Stuan is quoted by NRK. While Schmid is not sure what his future will hold beyond completing his Master’s degree in Pedagogy, he admits that the job is interesting. “The job offer is terribly exciting. I have to find out more specifically what it is and if I can be good at it but it is clearly relevant”, Schmid said