Ski jumper Peter Prevc decides to end his career after this season

"After the Olympics, I started thinking how much more my body could take and whether I can still give my best," an emotional Prevc said as he announced his decision at a press conference broadcast by nearly all media in Slovenia on Monday.

There is no single reason for his decision, but a hundred. "But there were just as many reasons that kept me going," the 31-year-old said, adding that his decision would not change even if he were winning at the end of this season.

"I want to live. I could become a trainer, I could work in an office, I could work in the forest. I have the skills, I'm strong and healthy, and I can do many things." But he said he would be thinking about the future in 47 days, after the season ends. He did say, however, that he would spend more time with family, hiking, skiing and travelling.

He hopes to be remembered by his peers for the occasional prank they played. And he hopes that the young will see from his career that success does not take much, that equipment is not all that matters, but the "decision about what you want to be doing after school."

Prevc, the eldest of the five siblings, four of whom have made a career in ski jumping, has won seven medals at major events, including an Olympic gold medal in the mixed competition in Beijing 2022.

In Sochi 2014, he won silver and bronze individually and moreover took Olympic silver in the team event in Beijing. He also has three medals from ski jumping World Championships - one team bronze from 2011 and individual silver and bronze medals from 2013.

Prevc's peak came in the 2015/2016 season, in which he set a series of milestones. He bagged 15 of his 23 Word Cup victories in that winter, stood on the podium 22 times in what were 29 events and collected 2,303 points, which remain record figures.

"Such a season will be hard to repeat, I'm already warning you now," Prevc told reporters at the time in what would foreshadow the rest of his career in which he lost regular contact to the very top athletes.

Looking back today, he said he would have lowered his own expectations. "After that season, I put too much pressure on myself," he said, adding that this might have prevented him from reaching higher than the occasional fourth or sixth place.

It was very hard to face the fact that he would never climb to the very top again. "The hardest thing was the fact that I trained the same, I had the same people around me, it looked the same in video, but it really wasn't the same. The body doesn't release all the energy, everything you've got."

While he was also besieged by injuries, he always managed to climb back, last winning a World Cup event in 2020 and missing an individual Olympic medal in Beijing two years ago by a hair's length. He is presently ranked 13th in the World Cup.

Prevc has also been excellent on giant hills and in 2015 became the first person to cross the 250-metre mark. He shares the record of three victories in the overall ski flying rankings. He was Ski Flying World Champion in 2016 and won bronze in 2014, while also bagging gold with the team in 2022 and this year.

He will finish his career with at least 35 World Cup victories, having also contributed to all of the 12 Slovenian wins in team events. He is 12th in the perpetual rankings for the most individual victories and the most podiums, 57.

When asked about the title of the most successful Slovenian ski jumper, Prevc said today his accomplishments and those of Primož Peterka were hard to compare. "What means more? He has two globes, I have one. Does the number of victories in a single season count? What is the criteria? .... It is a great success to compete in World Cup events for 15 years."

Prevc, who has two more second-place finishes in the overall World Cup rankings, will conclude his career at the traditional March World Cup finals in Planica, where he has stood on the podium 18 times so far.

President Nataša Pirc Musar posted on X today that this year, the Planica events would be particularly emotional. She congratulated him on an extraordinary career and wished him luck in the future. Prime Minister Robert Golob thanked him for all the moments he shared with the rest of the nation and achievements that made Slovenian proud.