GEPA footage
Norwegian ski racer Maria Therese Tviberg introduced her retirement on Thursday, September twelfth, after efficiently rehabilitating her fifth knee damage. After months of cautious deliberation, she bids farewell to her teammates and mates on the Norwegian ladies’s nationwide group and the prospect of future championship and World Cup successes. The worry of long-term penalties if she sustains a doable sixth knee damage weighs closely in her determination.
Historic
Tviberg set a milestone in Norwegian alpine snowboarding historical past when she gained the 2023 World Championship gold medal within the ladies’s particular person parallel occasion. The victory was the primary World Championship gold for a Norwegian alpine girl since Inger Bjørnbakken gained the slalom title in 1958.
Moreover, Tviberg gained the silver medal within the 2023 World Championship and the bronze medal within the 2022 Olympic group parallel competitors.
She recorded 14 top-10 World Cup outcomes throughout her profession, seven in slalom and one victory within the 2023 World Cup Ultimate group parallel competitors. She has 85 World Cup begins since her debut in January 2015, in addition to 10 World Championship begins and three Olympic begins.
From Velocity to Technical Racer
The now 30-year-old retired racer started her World Cup profession as a velocity racer, competing in downhill, super-G and alpine mixed occasions. From 2015 to 2017, Tviberg persistently recorded top-30 World Cup ends in the velocity occasions, after her spectacular debut, ending sixteenth in a January 2015 World Cup downhill in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
In 2019, Tviberg switched from velocity to technical occasions within the World Cup as a result of earlier accidents. The hard-working and proficient skier continued to impress by recording top-10 outcomes and persistently inserting within the high 30 when not injured. Notably, she recorded her greatest outcomes in recent times.
Stalled by Accidents
Tviberg’s ski racing profession has been interrupted by many extreme accidents, surgical procedures, and prolonged rehabilitation durations. She suffered two cruciate ligament accidents in every knee throughout her aggressive years earlier than profitable the 2023 World Championships.
About ten months after her Championship gold, she suffered season-ending accidents within the November 2023 World Cup big slalom in Killington, USA: one knee fracture and one within the tibia, two massive bone bruises, and a broken meniscus.
After this fifth knee damage, Tviberg centered solely on rehabilitation, as she didn’t wish to determine at the moment whether or not or to not return to World Cup ski racing.
No Extra
Right this moment’s retirement announcement got here after an extended thought course of. In accordance with an interview printed by Norwegian broadcaster NRK.no on September 12, Tviberg says the worry of turning into injured once more has grown too nice, and with the intense penalties following a doable future knee damage, she can’t defend a option to proceed ski racing.
After tearing cruciate ligaments at ages 16, 18, 21 and 24 years outdated along with final November’s accidents at age 29, Tviberg tells NRK she has “used up” the probabilities to reconstruct her ligaments with out having to take the following step of utilizing donor components. She doesn’t want to head down that path.
“The consequence is just too nice. I felt that that is the place it stops for me. So long as I’ve been capable of assist myself, it has been okay, however now that likelihood has been used up,” Tviberg explains to NRK.
The Transfer to the Mountains
Tviberg grew up within the coastal city of Bergen in Western Norway, the place there’s little snow. In accordance with Norwegian TV2.no, she additionally lived in Manchester and London, England, as a younger woman whereas her father labored there.
After returning to Bergen and Tviberg making an attempt alpine snowboarding, her household determined to maneuver with Maria, age 14, and her 12-year-old sister to the mountain city Geilo and its in depth ski space “as a result of I believed it was superior to go snowboarding” Tviberg says in a tribute movie launched on social media by the Norwegian Ski Federation on September twelfth.
In Geilo, Tviberg discovered nice coaching alternatives with the native ski membership on the hills surrounding the small, rural city.
Grateful and Proud
“Every part I’ve achieved is due to my household,” Tviberg says within the movie. She additionally thanks two long-term sponsors who’ve adopted her since her teenage years. “With out them and my household, none of this could have been doable, and I’m immensely grateful.”
Tviberg shares she is going to miss the women on the nationwide group and her coaches and continues: “I’m going to overlook performing each weekend, that rush.
“I’m pleased with my profession, I’m proud that I didn’t hand over earlier than, and I’m proud that I dared to decide on to embark on the following chapter now.”
In accordance with the Norwegian Ski Federation tribute movie, Tviberg is anxious and enthusiastic about her new future. On the identical time, she concludes with a smile:
“However that doesn’t imply saying goodbye isn’t unhappy.”
