Why Lara Gut-Behrami chose life beyond ski racing

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After recovering from a serious knee injury, the 48-time World Cup winner realized she no longer wanted to return.

When Lara Gut-Behrami was fit enough to train on snow again, she faced a question that recovery alone could not answer: Did she still want to race?

The answer was no.

Gut-Behrami announced her retirement in August 2026, even though she had recovered from her knee injury. In an interview with Tages-Anzeiger, she explained that returning would take too much energy and too many months of sacrifice. Skiing had once given her a sense of freedom. In recent years, she said, it had become a struggle.

A World Championships on home snow in Crans-Montana in February 2027 was not enough to change her mind. She had already experienced the intensity of a home-country pursuit at the highest level. The chance to race again did not outweigh what she would have to give up.

A champion across generations

For readers who may not remember the full scale of her career, Gut-Behrami was one of the defining skiers of her generation. She made her first World Cup start in December 2007, at age 16. Over the years, she became a force in both speed and giant slalom.

The FIS career record lists 48 World Cup victories and 101 podiums. She won the overall World Cup title in 2016 and again in 2024, eight years later. She also earned three Olympic podiums, including super-G gold at the 2014 Sochi Games.

At the 2021 World Championships in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, she won gold in both giant slalom and super-G. Those results give context to her reflection in the Tages-Anzeiger interview: she had already reached the heights she once might have chased again in 2027.

Her résumé made a comeback possible to imagine. It did not make one necessary.

A different kind of freedom

For a while, Gut-Behrami left open the possibility that she might wake up missing ski racing and decide to return. That feeling never came. By the time of the interview, she said her thoughts had moved well beyond the World Cup.

Retirement has given her room to find out who she is outside the sport that shaped her adult life. She still looks after her fitness and nutrition, but the pressure of competition has lifted. She also said her everyday interactions have become more comfortable. During her career, she felt uneasy when people put her on a pedestal; now she is more able to accept their admiration.

The change was especially clear at the end of October, when the World Cup season began. For the first time in her adult life, she could reach the season opener without feeling the pressure to prepare for a race.

Gut-Behrami did not retire because she had run out of ability. She retired after asking whether the life required for another comeback was still the life she wanted. Her answer closed one of the great careers in modern ski racing—and opened a new chapter on her own terms.