Arnd Peiffer's resignation is a real shock

I always thought: After more than forty years in journalism, including 32 years as a commentator at Eurosport, that nothing would bother me anymore. No matter what news comes to me. But then I get a press release from the German Ski Association (DSV), which simply says that Arnd Peiffer ended his career with immediate effect .

And I have to admit I have to pause for a moment. My first reaction was: This is an early April Fool's joke. That doesn't exist at all. The Olympic Games are next year. Well in Beijing, nobody wants to go there, but still no athlete usually stops at this point. You still take that with you, as the saying goes. Arnd Peiffer doesn't seem to care about any of this. In the official version of his resignation, the reason he gives is that he wants to quit knowing that he is still competitive. I can't help it, I don't buy it.

But whatever may be behind this unusual decision, especially given its timing (he will no longer be at the World Cup finals in Sweden this weekend): it deserves respect, because the 34-year-old was not only the most successful medal collector among German biathletes in recent years, but he was also a solid support in the team. A rock sometimes in the sporty surf that never rolls onto the shore with the same strength. I met him when he was still considered a talented young athlete. And in 2008 I also commented on his first races at the Junior World Championships in Ruhpolding (and all since then until the last one in Nove Mesto). A rollercoaster career He won bronze in the sprint (Russian Anton Shipulin, who retired two years ago, won) and also came third in the relay. And after every appearance he came into my reporter's booth. They were his first interviews and my first contacts with him. Even then, I noticed his calmness, even his incredible serenity for his age. And that was the case in the following 13 years of competition. He won the first of 16 World Cup medals right at the start of his career in Pyeonchang in 2009 as a member of the relay team. It is a nice coincidence that South Korea would also be the scene of his greatest success when he became Olympic sprint champion in 2018.

But Peiffer also associates Pyeongchang with a painful defeat because he narrowly lost to South Tyrolean Dominik Windisch in the finish of the mixed relay and so his team members remained without a medal. He felt like a failure, someone who didn't live up to his responsibilities. But he has learned over the course of his career that life as a competitive athlete in the public eye can be like a roller coaster. And that defeats are part of it, which are of course easier to cope with if, like him, you win more often. Mister Reliable – even outside the cross-country ski trail But it wasn't just his sporting achievements that made him a special athlete. When necessary, he did not skimp on criticism, which always remained factual and clear. Polemics were alien to him. And this Arnd Peiffer was always friendly and even courteous. When I started my cookbook “Culinary Direct Hits”, favorite recipes of biathletes from all over the world, he was one of the first to send me his ideas. There was also a corresponding photo of him as a chef preparing “chicken curry”.

That was typical Peiffer. He was reliable until the end and you could rely on him, just like at the last World Cup in this strange season in Slovenia. Nothing was going well for the German team until Peiffer won silver in the individual competition, a year after winning the title in the same discipline in Östersund. Big competitions were his strength, probably also because he could rest within himself. When Simon Schempp, his long-time companion, announced his resignation almost two months ago, a shocked Arnd Peiffer said: “That hurts.” I'll leave that sentence alone. It now perfectly applies to his decision to suddenly quit. Yes Arnd, that really hurts.

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Arnd Peiffer's resignation is a real shock

Hardly anyone has followed Arnd Peiffer's extraordinary career as closely as Eurosport commentator Sigi Heinrich. The unexpected resignation of the exceptional German athlete also hurts him personally, as he impressively expresses in these lines.

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