Norway’s Marte Olsbu Røiseland, who won five biathlon medals at last year’s Olympics, including two individual golds, announced she will retire after this weekend’s season-ending World Cup stop in Oslo.
“It’s the right time,” the 32-year-old Røiseland said, according to the International Biathlon Union (IBU). “I just feel it. It’s a feeling I had the whole year, actually.”
Røiseland was one of the most dominant athletes across all sports at the Olympics, tying the record for most medals won at one Winter Games, then missed the first month of this past season due to health issues.
She won one individual bronze medal and two relay golds at last month’s world championships, then earned her two World Cup wins this season two weeks ago.
“Last year was an incredible season, but I’m so glad I took another year,” she said, according to the IBU. “This year, it’s been tough, but it’s been so worth it. I’m just so happy with everything I have done. Now it’s time. I feel it, and I feel the life is so much more than biathlon.”
In 2020, Røiseland won medals in all seven events at the world championships -- five gold and two bronze.
She was considered a late bloomer, competing in her first Olympics at age 27, earning her first of 19 World Cup wins at 29 and winning her World Cup overall title at 31.
Later Tuesday, German Denise Herrmann-Wick, a reigning individual Olympic and world champion, announced she will also end her career at the Oslo World Cup at age 34.
Then on Wednesday came more retirements: Norwegian Tiril Eckhoff, who won eight Olympic medals and 15 world championships medals, and Frenchwoman Anaïs Chevalier-Bouchet, who won three Olympic medals and seven world championships medals.
France’s Julia Simon, who had a best individual 2022 Olympic finish of sixth, leads this season’s World Cup overall standings.
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