After more than 100 World Cup races it's over. © APA / BARBARA GINDL

A quiet farewell: Swiss downhill skier has had enough

After more than 100 World Cup races, a Swiss downhill skier has ended his career. He experienced his finest hour on the Saslong in Val Gardena, of all places.

March 28, 2024

From: det

Gilles Roulin's results were often just a side note. And yet, during his time in the World Cup, he was more or less one of the best 30 downhill skiers in the world. The Swiss was in the starting house in the highest ski league 102 times, with his finest hour in Val Gardena in 2017. In the descent on the Saslong, Roulin only missed the podium by 15 hundredths of a second. 4th place was still his best World Cup result.

Now, at the age of just 29, Gilles Roulin has said goodbye to the ski circus - but not as part of his last World Cup downhill run, as many others would do, but quietly and quietly, as suits him. “I say goodbye,” he announced in a simple video on Instagram.

“I felt at the start that something was different.” Gilles Roulin

The thought of ending his career had been brewing in his mind for a long time. “Especially at the start it just felt different than before, the willingness and will were no longer really there and so I had to realize that the path for me should now go in a different direction,” he said in a broadcast of the Swiss Ski Association.

Gilles Roulin in action. © AFP / TIZIANA FABI

“I am happy that I can end my career with a positive feeling and a laugh, and I am looking forward to the future, now outside of active ski racing,” said Gilles Roulin, who finished in the top 15 ten times in his World Cup career. In the European Cup, the second highest racing series, he has ten victories. Roulin will have his farewell race at the Swiss Championships at the beginning of April.