“Done with skiing”

Not at the start! Mystery surrounds Swiss ski ace

Nachrichten
13.03.2026 12:10

Excitement in Courchevel! As the elite men’s downhill skiers gradually hurtled down the course, one was unexpectedly missing from the starting line. Although Niels Hintermann had been present during the course inspection, he subsequently made the final decision to end his career as a professional skier. 

Wearing bib number 20, Hintermann was supposed to have set off from the starting gate. But suddenly, ÖSV athlete Raphael Haaser was up earlier. The Swiss skier had spontaneously decided not to compete in the race.

Raphael Haaser
Raphael Haaser(Bild: GEPA)

“He was still at the course inspection earlier and didn’t say anything. Even his Swiss teammates have no information about it,” expert and former ski ace Hans Knauß initially puzzled over on ORF. Gradually, however, the details began to emerge.

“Given a second chance at life”
Shortly afterward, in the finish area, the Swiss skier finally announced his retirement from professional skiing. “I’m done with skiing! After overcoming my cancer, I was given a second life, and I didn’t want to throw that away,” Hintermann explained in an ORF interview. 

It wasn’t a snap decision, the Swiss skier said. Rather, he had been thinking it over for several weeks and realized today at the start that his body and mind weren’t up for it—“and I just had to listen to that,” the speed specialist said. That’s why he decided to officially end his career right then and there. The Swiss skier takes many positive memories and great friendships with him from his years on the Ski World Cup circuit. 

Kriechmayr Ends Drought
Meanwhile, Vincent Kriechmayr ended the ÖSV men’s speed team’s dry spell—which had lasted over 1,000 days—with his victory in the Courchevel downhill. For the entire Swiss team, however, things did not go according to plan this time. 

While Alexis Monney and Franjo von Allmen failed to finish, Marco Odermatt was able to celebrate winning the small crystal globe, though he was clearly outclassed in the battle for the day’s victory. 

This article has been automatically translated,
read the original article here.

Loading...
00:00 / 00:00
Abspielen
Schließen
Aufklappen
kein Artikelbild
Loading...
Vorige 10 Sekunden
Zum Vorigen Wechseln
Abspielen
Zum Nächsten Wechseln
Nächste 10 Sekunden
00:00
00:00
1.0x Geschwindigkeit
Loading
Kommentare Banner - Die Stimme Österreichs

Willkommen in unserer Community! Eingehende Beiträge werden geprüft und anschließend veröffentlicht. Bitte achten Sie auf Einhaltung unserer Netiquette und AGB. Für ausführliche Diskussionen steht Ihnen ebenso das krone.at-Forum zur Verfügung. Hier können Sie das Community-Team via unserer Melde- und Abhilfestelle kontaktieren.

Hinweis in eigener Sache: Das krone.at-Forum präsentiert sich ab sofort in neuem Design! Wir freuen uns über konstruktives Feedback. Damit die Diskussionen in den Kommentarbereichen beim jeweiligen Thema bleiben, können Sie uns Rückmeldungen hier hinterlassen.

Kostenlose Spiele
Vorteilswelt

Magazine der Kronen Zeitung