FILE PHOTO: Alpine Skiing - FIS Alpine Skiing World Championships - Women's Super G - St. Moritz, Switzerland - 7/02/17 - Stephanie Venier of Austria in action. REUTERS/Dominic Ebenbichler/File Photo
(Reuters) -Super-G world champion Stephanie Venier announced her retirement on Thursday, six months before the Milano-Cortina Olympics, with the Austrian saying she was no longer prepared to risk her health and wanted to go out at the top.
The 31-year-old Austrian won the first gold medal of her senior Alpine skiing career on home snow last February at the Saalbach world championships.
Venier took part in the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, failing to finish the downhill, and missed the 2022 Beijing Games.
"The thought of ending my career isn’t new -- it’s been growing inside me for a while," she said in a statement.
"The deep will and determination required for elite sport just hasn’t been there in recent months in the way I expect from myself.
"Even though the Olympic Games are coming up next year, now feels like exactly the right time to bring my racing career to a close."
Venier, who made her World Cup debut in 2013 and was a junior world champion in Super-G that same year, earned three World Cup wins and a total of 12 podiums.
"Fortunately, I was spared from major injuries, but I no longer want to push the recurring knee problems and risk my long-term health," she said.
"As the saying goes: the best time to retire is at the top."
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Ed Osmond)
