The three-time Olympic champion Matthias Mayer returns to the ski slopes

The three-time Olympic champion Matthias Mayer is planning a comeback on racing skis. The Carinthian, who retired from active racing at the end of 2022, announced that he wanted to start as a forerunner at the World Championships in February in Saalbach. “I’m already training for that. And I’m looking forward to that. I never stopped training, I intensified my training. And in January I want to train more Super-G,” said Mayer in an interview with Small newspaper.

However, he currently has no intention of making a comeback, which is why they greatly respect him Marcel Hirscher and Lindsey Vonn completed. “This is a big decision. It’s not enough to just strap on skis and you’ll be a winning skier again. Rather, it’s a hard, rocky road. But he never ruled out or promised a comeback. According to the 34-year-old, his Saalbach project should be a test. “As a forerunner, I’m more of a ‘pleasure skier’ who likes to go downhill quickly. I have no competition, my opponent is the mountain.”

The fact is, however, that the Olympic downhill will take place next season Bormio instead, where Mayer resigned completely unexpectedly in 2022. So the circle could be closing. Mayer recently won gold in three Winter Games in a row: in the downhill in Sochi in 2014, in the super-G in Pyeongchang in 2018 and in the super-G in Beijing in 2022. There was also downhill bronze in 2022.

Last season he worked in an advisory role for the ÖSV speed team before he attracted so much attention at an event in Kitzbühel in January 2024 that police intervention became necessary. The association then made a statement health problems public. Last week, Mayer was in Val Gardena to test skis for, among other things, his ex-brand colleague Vincent Kriechmayr.