Carlo, look back and smile: Janka's farewell to Wengen. "The perfect place to greet you"

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The giant Olympic champion and 2010 cup winner, today at a press conference announced his retirement from competition, which will officially take place on Saturday at the end of the second descent on Lauberhorn. "The injuries held me back, but it was a great career."

Thursday 13 January 2022 7 minutes reading time

He leaves a great, one of the best Swiss skiers in history and, without a series of physical problems, a talent who probably would have made even more of his mark on the white circus. In his long journey, however, Carlo Janka wrote really beautiful chapters and today, officially announcing his retirement, he confirmed the depth as a champion and also as a man, as a family man who leaves his world at the age of 35. A tear, or perhaps several, will fall on the finish line of Saturday's descent, the one on the Lauberhorn in its entirety (tomorrow, however, there will be the "short" race) which will mark the last World Cup challenge for the veteran from Graubünden. This afternoon in the press conference, the Olympic champion greeted everyone: the next two races in Wengen will be the last of a splendid career, as said unfortunately conditioned by injuries, in particular with the last very difficult years which, due to a bad back, have prevented from expressing himself as he could and wanted. Suffice it to say that, in the pre-season towards this Olympic year, Janka skied 7-8 days before having to stop and try for Bormio, when he raised the white flag again after the tough tests on the “Stelvio”. In Wengen, however, Carlo arrived as a real athlete and in testing he showed that he was there, even if he will hardly be able to fight for a podium in the two descents that await him on that Lauberhorn where he triumphed in 2010, as well as winning in combined in 2009. and in 2015. "The circle closes here, it's the perfect farewell in my favorite race - said the Swiss champion at the conference, as reported by the" Blick "- Also, tomorrow and Saturday we will have ideal track and weather conditions, it is wonderful to be able to greet in this way. Now I'll just have to get to the finish line twice without a hitch ... ”. Born in 1986, the Graubünden won the 2009/2010 World Cup, in the magical year in which he graduated Olympic champion in giant at the Vancouver Games, while the previous year the two world medals (the only ones of the his career) in Val d''Isère, with the world title in giant and bronze in descent. There are 28 podiums in the World Cup, with 11 successes divided into 4 different disciplines, and we are reminded of the Beaver Creek hat-trick in December 2009, to launch towards the "coppone", when in just over 48 hours he won combined, descent and giant on the Birds of Prey, demonstrating phenomenal completeness. The last pearl, a truly extraordinary super-g in which he destroyed the competition, in the pre-Olympics in Jeongseon in February 2016. "For me it has become increasingly difficult in recent years - continued Carlo in the conference - After the rupture of the ligament Crusader, the negative factors became bigger and bigger and I practically had to avoid one discipline after another, remaining in fact only the descent available. The decision to end my career came between summer and autumn 2021; I still had one goal and that was to be able to compete one last time on the Lauberhorn, luckily I made it and in general I can look back on a career with a lot of satisfaction. At the beginning everything was perfect, then there were ups and downs that are part, however, of the path of a professional skier. Recently my priorities have changed: as you know I will become a dad again (after Ellie, born in 2019), and ultimately my head is no longer ready to take all the risks it takes to be competitive at the highest level. So I said enough ". And in a few weeks, his heir Marco Odermatt could really close the circle, bringing the men's World Cup back to Switzerland, 12 years after a great achievement. Carlo Janka.

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