After months of keeping the media and skiing world in suspense, Norwegian ski queen Therese Johaug finally confirmed on Monday that she won’t be competing at the Winter Olympics in Italy next year. She’s decided to retire from the sport, at the age of 36.
Johaug said at a press conference Monday that she’d “have a bad conscience” no matter what she decided. When she competed again at the World Championships in Trondheim this past winter, “it had gone four to five weeks without seeing Kristin (her young daughter).” She called the need to maintain both a gruelling training tempo and caring for small children “exhausting and there can be a lot of tears.”
Sports commentators thought she had a good chance at winning more Olympic medals but she was disappointed that she didn’t win gold in the 50-kilometer race in Trondheim and “only” silver in the 20K skiathlon and 10K classic. She said she realized “I didn’t have that last little thing needed to go for another Olympics.”
Now she’s looking forward to less stress, “more time with Kristin and Nils Jakob (her partner) at home” and perhaps more children after collecting 14 World Championships and three Olympic gold medals during her long career. She also won the long-distance Tour de Ski four times.
NewsinEnglish.no staff
