Decorated Swiss skier Lara Gut-Behrami announces retirement

Gut-Behrami missed the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics earlier this year due to an injury. Keystone / Gian Ehrenzeller

Lara Gut-Behrami announced on Wednesday that she was retiring with immediate effect. Having suffered a serious knee injury in November 2025, the 35-year-old from canton Ticino in southern Switzerland will not be making a comeback this season.

This officially marks the end of an era for Swiss skiing: Gut-Behrami, a three-time Olympic medallist, is bringing her career to a close at the age of 35.

The Ticino native boasts one of the most impressive records in Swiss skiing: three Olympic medals (one gold, two bronze), nine World Championship medals, two overall Crystal Globes (2016 and 2024), six Super-G Globes (2014, 2016, 2021, 2023, 2024 and 2025) and one in giant slalom (2024), totalling 101 World Cup podium finishes – one fewer than the legendary Vreni Schneider.

“I have been fortunate and honoured to have enjoyed a long and intense career, to have expressed my dreams and aspirations through skiing, and to have shared this adventure with some extraordinary people,” the skier wrote in a letter shared with Italian-language public television RSI. “That feeling of absolute freedom on the snow has never left me. It was there when I was a child, it was there when I was an athlete, and it will always be there.”

‘The chance to be able to choose’

After a career spanning 18 seasons, the end has nevertheless come abruptly. Gut-Behrami suffered a serious injury last November during training, bringing her 2025-2026 season to a close – a season that was originally set to be marked by the Milan-Cortina Olympic Games and a fitting farewell.

“I am also fortunate and happy to be able to choose,” Gut-Behrami added in her letter. “Despite nearly 20 years of top-level sport, despite the falls and injuries, I do not suffer from any recurring pain and I do not want to suffer from it.”

The athlete has taken the time to get back on her feet, but she has decided to listen to her body and not attempt a return to the slopes this season.

“That’s also why I know the time has come: to stop trying to push my limits at all costs, and to set a certain pace and demands for my body,” she wrote. “Skiing is something magical and natural to me; trying to force my body and mind to endure and cope with pain would be tantamount to tarnishing the image I have within me of what I have done with such passion.”

Translated from French/reviewed by an English Department journalist

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