<p>Austrian skier Hannes Reichelt kept winning races after returning from several severe knee and back injuries that hampered his career.</p>
<p>The former world champion’s latest setback, however, was one too many.</p>
<p>The 40-year-old Reichelt said Wednesday he will retire at this week’s World Cup finals in Lenzerheide, Switzerland.</p>
<p>The announcement came six years after the Austrian won the biggest prize of his two-decade-long career — super-G gold at the world championships in Beaver Creek, Colorado.</p>
<p>“I’ve got the feeling that after 20 years on the World Cup the time has come to leave,” Reichelt said.</p>
<p>He failed to get back to the top level after damaging his right knee in a downhill crash in December 2019 and didn’t make the Austrian team for the worlds in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, last month.</p>
<p>“In races I was struggling more and more to get to the limit. To me it was clear: I race to the fullest or not at all,” Reichelt said.</p>
<p>Reichelt did not qualify for this season’s World Cup finals but was planning to ski down the super-G course on a farewell run as one of the forerunners ahead of Thursday’s race.</p>
<p>Reichelt has won 13 World Cup races, including the classic downhill in Kitzbühel, and had 44 podium results.</p>
<p>The Austrian won his home race in January 2014 while suffering from back pains. He could barely stand straight after finishing and needed surgery for a herniated disk the following day, ruling him out for the Sochi Olympics.</p>
<p>Another of his wins came in a super-G in 2005, only nine months after tearing an ACL.</p>
<p>Reichelt is also known for earning one the most unlikely discipline title wins in the 54-year history of the World Cup.</p>
<p>In 2008, he arrived at the finals in Bormio, Italy, trailing leader Didier Cuche by 99 points in the super-G standings. Reichelt won the race to earn 100 points, and Cuche was ultimately bumped into 16th place by his Swiss teammate Daniel Albrecht — with only the top 15 earning World Cup points.</p>
<p>It would be the only crystal globe award for Reichelt, who also won super-G silver at the 2011 worlds.</p>
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