Tina Weirather announced her retirement after realising she had achieved all she set out to in the sport ©Getty Images

Liechtenstein's Olympic bronze medallist alpine skier Tina Weirather has announced her retirement at the age of 30.

Weirather, who took third place at Pyeongchang 2018 in the super-G, made her World Cup debut in 2005 at the age of 16 and won nine races on the circuit, reaching 41 podiums.

In 2017 at St Moritz, she won silver in the super-G, her preferred event, at the International Ski Federation (FIS) Alpine World Ski Championships.

She never won the overall World Cup title - her best result was fourth in 2016 - but took super-G crystal globes in 2017 and 2018.

Her final race win came at the tail end of the 20172018 season when she won the super-G event in Crans-Montana in Switzerland.

In a video on Instagram, Weirather mentioned that due to restrictions surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, she was unable to host a press conference to announce her retirement.

Weirather said: "It's a big step for every athlete, to decide when the right time has come - for me it's now. 

"I've had an amazing career, even though it started pretty rough - when I was 21, I'd already had seven knee surgeries in the books."

One of Weirather's greatest obstacles were the injuries which hampered her progression at a young age, but she reached her first World Cup podium at the age of 22 in Lake Louise in Canada in December 2011, winning her first race in Germany just over a year later in 2013.

Speaking of her decision to retire, she said it happened naturally and was unlike her expectation to quit the sport.

"Last autumn I was cleaning out my office and I found an old book, back from when I worked with a sports psychologist and on one page I found a pyramid of goals - short-, middle- and long-term goals which I wrote when I was 17.






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When I wrote this, I was 17 years old. I was at home with 2 injured knees - my best World Cup result to date was an 8th place. I was working with a sport psychologist, to get over the fact that I just hurt both my knees. I remember I was a little ashamed of this list... I took care no one saw it, I didn’t want anyone to think I’m crazy. Naive. Unrealistic. I forgot about the book - until I found it again, this fall, cleaning out my office. I had tears in my eyes, cause it seemed like a very far away, but unimaginably beautiful and strong dream back then, and now I can look back and think ‚I did it‘. I’m grateful I found this, cause in the process I didn’t feel like achieving everything I wanted - When I won silver, I wanted gold. When I had 2 crystal globes, I wanted a third. That drive makes athletes successful. Yet in the end, if you write down your wildest dreams when you were 17, and they became true - enjoy it, and don’t have any regrets. #retirement #nextlife #thankyou

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"For my long-term goals I'd written down: Olympic medal, World Championship medal, World Cup wins in three disciplines and a Crystal Globe and I had tears in my eyes when I realised that I'd reached all of them."

"The time as a ski racer is extremely intense and exhausting and I think I'd overestimate the right moment of retiring.

"I had this idea that I wanted to be at the very top, and healthy, and then say goodbye when in fact when you're at the top you probably don't retire, it's more about the feeling you get for something new."

Weirather joins biathlon legend Martin Fourcade as a winter-sports athlete who has retired at a relatively young age at the end of this season, with the Frenchman leaving his sport at 31 in recent weeks.