Fabian Rießle, team Olympic champion and three-time Nordic combined world champion, has announced the end of his career. At the home World Cup in Schonach on January 28th he will be “on the starting line for the last time. I am looking forward to celebrating my farewell with you,” the 33-year-old wrote on Instagram. In January 2009 he celebrated his World Cup debut at exactly this point, and with his last race there he has now come full circle.
Rießle won silver with the team and bronze in the individual event at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Four years later, he achieved his greatest success as a team Olympic champion in Pyeongchang together with Eric Frenzel, Vinzenz Geiger and Johannes Rydzek. He also won Olympic silver on the large hill in South Korea.
At the World Championships he was on the podium with the team a total of six times, including three times at the top. The 2015 World Championship title in Falun in the team competition together with Tino Edelmann, Eric Frenzel and Johannes Rydzek was special – it was the first German gold medal in 28 years. He won his last World Cup medal with bronze in the team sprint in Oberstdorf 2021.
After that, Rießle was no longer able to be at the forefront. He left last season early. This season he was not in the DSV squad at the World Cup opener in Kuusamo, Finland. Last November he moved up in Lillehammer, Norway, but did not end up in the top 30 in the two competitions and slipped back into the second-tier Continental Cup.
