Norway’s Jarl Magnus Riiber, who owns a Nordic combined record 76 individual World Cup wins, announced he will retire at the end of this season, one year before the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.
Riiber, 27, cited a recent diagnosis of Crohn’s disease and a desire to spend more time with his partner, Sunna, 4-year-old daughter, Ronja, and 10-month-old son, Birk.
“Since September, I have only spent three weeks with my family,” was posted on Riiber’s social media, according to a translation. “This is possible once, especially with a World Championships at home (in Trondheim next month). But even if the results come, it does not bring me the same joy as it once did. The health situation eats up the surplus, governs all choices and priorities. I feel like a prisoner at the moment and priorities are taking away time from what matters most to me. With the Olympics next year, I would have to sacrifice even more, while the health situation makes it uncertain whether the body would withstand it. Therefore, I see the opportunity now to give myself while the play is good, and start building a body that can withstand play and fun with my children.”
Riiber has won five of the last six World Cup season titles, plus leads this season’s standings. He can break his tie with retired German Eric Frenzel for the most World Cup season titles in the sport. Germans Vinzenz Geiger and Julian Schmid are second and third in this season’s standings.
Riiber said the last few months “have been characterized by little training and frequent hospital visits.”
“Now I have clarity about the problems: I have been diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammatory condition that I will have to live with for the rest of my life,” he said in a Norwegian federation press release. “It also causes pain in the joints and tendons, which explains the ailments I have been struggling with for a long time. Fortunately, the medication helps, but a side effect is a weakened immune system. I have received good follow-up from the national team doctor and Lillehammer Hospital, and everyone has been positive that I can play sports as normal, of course with some uncertainty about health.”
Riiber’s eight world championships gold medals are a Nordic combined record. He shares the record of four individual world titles, which he can break next month in Trondheim, which will be his first worlds on Norwegian snow.
Riiber owns one Olympic medal, silver in the team event from 2018. At the 2022 Beijing Games, he spent nearly two weeks in COVID-19 isolation, missing all official training sessions, before returning for the second and final individual event.
He led before taking a wrong turn in the cross-country skiing section and ended up finishing in eighth. He then missed the team event — which Norway won — due to being “completely spent,” the Norwegian team director said.
Riiber’s announcement Wednesday came two weeks after Norwegian Johannes Thingnes Bø, the world’s top male biathlete, said he will retire after this season to prioritize time with his family.
Then last week, Bø’s decorated older brother, Tarjei, said he will also retire after this season at age 36.
Therese Johaug, a triple 2022 Olympic cross-country skiing gold medalist, ended a two-year retirement to compete this season but has repeated she will not extend her comeback to the 2026 Olympics. She is focused on the home world championships in Trondheim.
Come 2026, Norway, without those stars, will try to top the total medal standings for a third consecutive Winter Games.