Last Worlds for Watabe as 2009 champion dreams of 'perfect end' to career: 'I still enjoy every single day'

After 10 FIS Nordic Ski World Championships over 18 years, veteran Akito Watabe (JPN) will make his last start in the event on Saturday as a two-decade long career is starting to come to an end.

The 36-year-old has said he will retire after next season and as the 2025 edition of the competition, in Trondheim, Norway, concludes with the Men's Individual Gundersen Large Hill, the five-time medalist will bow out with it.

With more than a year left to compete, including at a Winter Olympic Games, however, Watabe said he still has plenty left to do before taking his skis off for good.

"My motivation comes from improving everything and experiencing new things from trainings and traveling," he said.

World Cup debut in 2006

Born in Hakuba, in the Nagano prefecture in northern Japan, Watabe picked up the sport aged 12. In March 2006, a couple of months before his 18th birthday, he made his World Cup debut in Sapporo, Japan, finishing 19th in the Mass Start. It was also in Sapporo, that he made his World Championships debut in 2007, with an eighth place in the Men's Team event as his best result.

After that, Watabe has competed at every edition of the World Championships. He won a Team gold medal in Liberec, Czechia, in 2009 and claimed his first individual medal, a silver in Gundersen Large Hill, in Lahti (FIN) 12 years later. In the successful 2017 championships, he also bagged a Team Sprint Bronze. At Seefeld (AUT) 2019, Watabe was back on the podium as he won a bronze medal in Gundersen Normal Hill. His fifth medal came two years later, in Oberstdorf (GER), where he finished third in the Gundersen Large Hill.

In the winter of 2015/2016 he was the main challenger to the dominant Eric Frenzel (GER), who won the overall World Cup Crystal Globe five years in a row. He finished in second place eight times that season, bagging a third medal for the overall second place.

Made 'one of season's best jumps'

At Trondheim 2025, Watabe said he has yet to find his top form. Teaming up with Ryota Yamamoto and twin sisters Yuan and Haruka Kasai, his Japan were 0.2 of a second from a bronze medal in the Mixed Team Normal Hill competition, where Austria clinched the bronze after a lengthy video review of the sprint finish. In the Compact Normal Hill, Watabe finished in 13th place, having been ninth in the Ski Jumping with a 100.5m jump that gave him 137.3 points.

"It's just OK but I'm quite satisfied about my jump on the hill," Watabe said after finishing 30.6 seconds after Compact gold medallist Jarl Magnus Riiber (NOR).

"I think I can say it was one of the best jump of this season and I'm just really happy to show this at these championships. But I was sick in the beginning of the season and my Cross-Country performance is not really as good as usual.

Health struggles

Having had to pull out of this season's first World Cup stage, in Ruka, Finland, Watabe competed at Lillehammer in December but finished outside of the top-40 in the two events, complaining about "breathing problems after illness".

He then went to Ramsau (AUT) but did not finish in the Mass Start Normal Hill and pulled out of the Gundersen, still struggling with what turned to be a pleural inflammation.

"After a bout three weeks of terrible coughing, my lungs and ribs were in poor condition," Watabe announced on social media.

"I was supposed to be just a little sick, I didn't expect that it would get this bad. I did my best to get ready for Ramsau but my breathing was still shallow and the pain in my ribs were unbearable."

He spent the Christmas break in Ramsau to relax with his family, slowly getting better.

A month after Ramsau, on 18 January, he competed in Schonach, Germany, and has been back since, trying to get back into shape. His best result this World Cup season was a 20th place at the Mass Start in Otepää, Estonia, in the beginning of February.

"It was a hard road to come back to a normal performance and in the beginning of January I was just focused on recovering from my illness," Watabe said.

"I went back to normal training in the first or second week of January and then I was just taking step by step to come back to a normal performance. It was tough days but it was fun."

Having got back closer to the top-10 in Trondheim, Watabe is clear about what he needs to do to be able to fight for medals in the home straight of his career.

"First of all, I need to improve my jump. The Ski Jumping level of Nordic Combined is getting higher than ever before," Watabe said.

"Compared to in 'my era', like 10 years ago, the level is getting higher."

Strong jumps for Japan

While struggling to get back into shape, Watabe has seen Yamamoto go towards another top-10 season in the Best Jumper standings that the 27-year-old teammate won two years ago. In the Women's competition, Japan's Kasai sisters are in the top-three best jumpers, Yuna claiming her first World Cup win in February followed by a sensational first World title in Trondheim a few weeks later.

"We have a secret," Watabe said, jokingly, about Japan's strength in the Ski Jumping hill.

"We are small and light human. The Japanese body is perfect for Ski Jumping, but in that way we are not strong in the Cross-Country."

Going for gold at his sixth Olympic Games

After Trondheim and the final two World Cup stages, in Oslo (NOR) and Lahti (FIN), Watabe will get plenty of time to get back in shape and improve his jumps as he prepares for the last season of his career, and his last big championships; the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games.

"It's going to be the last Olympics of my career," Watabe said.

"I'm getting old and am not at the same top level as before and now I am the third man in the team. It is also a hard path to qualify for the team. 

It was in Italy that he made his Olympic Games debut at Torino 2006, before he had even competed in the World Cup. After finishing 19th in the Sprint, he has competed at every edition of the Games since, winning four medals – two silvers and two bronze, both bronzes coming at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

He hopes to have saved the gold medal for his sixth and final Games, at a venue that holds a special place in his heart.

When Watabe in February 2012 claimed the first of his now 19 World Cup victories, it was in Val di Fiemme, where the Milano Cortina 2026 Nordic Combined will take place.

"It is going to be an emotional moment (to compete there again)," he said.

Next up at Trondheim 2025 is Friday's Men's Team Large Hill event, that was postponed from Thursday due to strong winds. It will be the last Team event at a World Championships for Watabe, who is teaming up with Yamamoto, Sora Yachi and his younger brother Yoshito Watabe, but a year of lasts begins, he tries to think as little as possible about his career coming to an end.

"I don't think about that, I just enjoy the present moment. That is my life and I'm really excited and enjoy every single day."

Click here for schedule and result from the Trondheim 2025 World Championships.