Горные лыжи. Аксель Лунд Свиндаль объявил о завершении спортивной карьеры
OSLO (AP) - Norway's Kjetil Andre Aamodt retired on Saturday, ending a 17-year career in which he won the most Olympic and world championship medals in skiing history.
"I am neither in the physical or mental shape to continue," said the 35-year-old skier, fighting back tears. "In addition, I have a family to consider." Aamodt announced his retirement on national television while accepting a Norwegian award as the best male athlete of 2006.
He hurt his knee in the downhill at the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, and while he was unable to defend his Olympic combined title, he won the super-G gold medal.
In doing so, he became the oldest skier to win an Olympic Alpine medal, and the only man to win the same Alpine event in three Olympics.
His fourth gold medal boosted his Olympic medal count to eight, an all-time record. Aamodt also holds the record for world championship medals at 12, five golds, four silvers and three bronzes from 1991 to 2003. He also posted 21 World Cup wins.
His last race was in March at Sweden, at the same World Cup finale which marked the retirement of compatriot Lasse Kjus, who won five Olympic medals, including the 1994 combined at Lillehammer.
Days later, Aamodt underwent surgery to repair damaged cartilage in his knee. Last month, while accepting another Norwegian sports award, Aamodt said he hoped to continue competing.
But he'd also previously said he would retire when there was an obvious successor to him and Kjus, and his mind may have been at ease with the performance of Aksel Lund Svindal, the current World Cup overall leader.
Svindal, third in a World Cup giant slalom on Saturday in Adelboden, Switzerland, didn't know Aamodt was retiring, and was expecting him to rejoin the circuit in two weeks. "He's our team captain," Svindal said. "His results and the fact he is a legend make him a natural champion."
In 1992, Aamodt was recovering from being hospitalized with mononucleosis when he captured the Olympic gold medal in the super-G at the age of 20 in the Albertville Games, becoming Norway's first Olympic Alpine medalist in 40 years. He also won a bronze medal in the giant slalom.
He won two silvers and a bronze at Lillehammer in 1994, didn't medal in Nagano, and added golds in the super-G and combined four years ago at Salt Lake City.
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