Olympic winters always thin the ranks, but the months since Milano-Cortina have brought a farewell wave of rare scale. Across alpine skiing, biathlon and cross-country, a generation that defined the past decade is stepping away — while two of the sport's biggest American names have chosen very different paths.
Alpine skiing loses its elder statesmen
The numbers alone tell the story: 17 men have retired from the alpine World Cup in 2026. The list is headed by Alexis Pinturault, who calls it a career at 35 after years as one of the tour's defining all-rounders, and by Britain's Dave Ryding.
Not every veteran is walking away, though. Christof Innerhofer, 41, is instead switching equipment — leaving Rossignol for Head after 354 World Cup races, a remarkable late-career reset for one of the circuit's longest-serving racers.
Biathlon's generational break
Biathlon may be losing even more familiar faces. Dorothea Wierer, Italy's superstar, retires at 36. Germany says goodbye to Franziska Preuss and Johannes Kühn. Austria loses three at once — Simon Eder, at 43, plus Komatz and Hauser — and Sweden's Ivarsson has also called time. The wave follows the Bø brothers, who had already left the circuit in March 2025 and worked the Milano Games as pundits for Norwegian broadcaster NRK.
Cross-country skiing is part of the generational shift too, with Jessie Diggins among the names moving on. And France's Émilien Jacquelin has found perhaps the most original off-ramp of all: the biathlete is taking a detour into professional road cycling.
Vonn: a recovery, not yet a farewell
Lindsey Vonn's comeback ended in the most brutal way imaginable. In the Olympic downhill at Cortina she hooked a gate seconds after leaving the start, was flown out by helicopter and underwent surgery in Treviso — a broken leg, suffered just nine days after tearing her ACL. A formal retirement has not been announced. For now, hers is a recovery story rather than a goodbye, and the skiing world is watching how it unfolds.
Shiffrin stays — with 2030 an open question
The counterpoint to all the farewells is Mikaela Shiffrin. Fresh from an Olympic slalom gold won by 1.50 seconds — the biggest winning margin in the event since 1998 — she has confirmed she will return to the World Cup. On the prospect of racing at the 2030 Games, she is keeping her options open: "I won't say no, but I'm not going to say yes either."
The circuit she returns to will look very different. When the alpine season opens in Sölden on October 24, it does so without Pinturault and Ryding, and the biathlon winter will start without Wierer, Preuss and Eder. The next major target for the reshaped fields is already fixed: the 2027 world championships, with alpine racing in Crans-Montana from February 1 and biathlon in Otepää — Estonia's first time hosting — from February 8.
