Austrian Olympic snowboard champion Benjamin Karl reverses retirement to continue career

Benjamin Karl, the 40-year-old Austrian snowboarder and double Olympic gold medalist, announced on Tuesday he would continue his career in alpine snowboarding, abandoning plans to switch to cycling and compete in the Olympics in that discipline.

Karl, who won gold in the parallel giant slalom at the 2022 and 2026 Winter Olympics, had declared his snowboarding career over in March, intending to pursue cyclocross. The Austrian Ski Federation confirmed his reversal in a statement on Tuesday .

“Over the summer, some things happened that were not foreseeable. Above all, the feeling has grown extremely strong that I am simply a snowboarder who enjoys cycling,” Karl said . He added that his perspective on professional snowboarding had shifted, noting that after 30 years in the sport, he had come to appreciate the support he had received, which he described as far from guaranteed.

Karl, a five-time world champion, said he looked forward to continuing his career with the upcoming World Championships in Montafon, Austria, in March 2027. Christian Galler, the Austrian Ski Federation’s snowboard sporting director, said he had held extensive discussions with Karl in recent days and was convinced the athlete still had significant ambitions in alpine snowboarding .

The announcement comes as other winter sports athletes have also made career decisions. Finnish cross-country skier Kerttu Niskanen, 38, announced her retirement on Tuesday, ending a career that included seven senior world championship medals, two of them individual. Niskanen won Olympic silver in the 10-kilometer classical event in Beijing 2022, finishing 0.4 seconds behind Norway’s Therese Johaug, and bronze in the 30-kilometer freestyle .

Niskanen’s last competition was the Holmenkollen 50-kilometer world cup in March 2026, where she placed 32nd. Her final individual world cup podium came in Cogne in February 2025. She debuted at the senior world championship level in 2011 and had been a mainstay of Finland’s national team since then .

Niskanen cited injuries as part of her decision, including foot problems that forced her to withdraw from the season-ending Inari Finnish Championships last spring. “I knew Kerttu had been considering such a decision. It’s never easy to retire,” her brother, Iivo Niskanen, 34, said . He recalled her career highlights, including a joint victory in Lenzerheide on Dec. 29, 2021, and her near-gold in Beijing.