Olympic gold medalist Lara Gut-Behrami is sticking to her plan to retire from Alpine skiing rather than attempting a comeback from an injury that ruled her out of the Milan Cortina Games.
Gut-Behrami, 35, tore the ACL in her left knee in a Nov. 20 training crash in Copper Mountain, Colorado. She previously tore the same ligament in 2017.
Gut-Behrami said she has no chronic pain, which is actually incentive to keep her plan from before the injury to retire now. She previously announced in June 2025 that she planned to retire after the 2025-26 Olympic season.
“I am also fortunate and happy to be able to choose,” Gut-Behrami said, according to the International Ski and Snowboard Federation. “Despite almost 20 years of elite sport, despite the crashes and the injuries, I do not have recurring pain, and I do not want to have it. It is also for this reason that I know the right moment has come: the moment not to stubbornly keep trying to reach and push beyond my limits at any cost, and not to keep imposing such demands and strain on my body.”
Gut-Behrami won 2022 Olympic super-G gold, plus bronze in the downhill in 2014 and the combined in 2022.
She also won world championships in the super-G and giant slalom in 2021 and World Cup overall titles in 2015-16 and 2023-24.
She has raced on the highest level since age 16, including winning two world championships silver medals at age 17 in 2009.
