(Reuters) – Olympic gold medallist Maiken Caspersen Falla of Norway announced her retirement from cross-country skiing on Thursday, ending a career during which she also won five world titles.
The 31-year-old, a four-times Olympian, won gold in the individual sprint event at the Sochi Games in 2014 and claimed silver in the same event at Pyeongchang four years later along with a bronze in the team sprint.
“It is a bit sad, because cross-country has been a part of my life for so many years,” Falla told Norwegian newspaper VG.
“I am proud of what I have accomplished. I have not had so much time to think it over, because it was always the next thing that would be the great one. Now, I will allow myself to be a little bit proud.”
Falla is also a double world champion in individual events, winning in 2017 and defending her title in 2019, and she took three straight sprint world cup titles between 2016 and 2018.
She was eliminated in the sprint semi-finals at the Beijing Winter Games in February.
(Reporting by Tommy Lund in Gdansk, editing by Ed Osmond)
