Nordic combined great Jarl Magnus Riiber of Norway to retire after season and miss 2026 Olympics

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Nordic combined great Jarl Magnus Riiber is calling it a career.

The 27-year-old Norwegian, a five-time overall World Cup champion who has won a record 76 World Cup events, announced on Wednesday he plans to retire in March.

Riiber disclosed that he was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease last month. He said the inflammation and pain associated with the digestive condition has taken a toll on his body and he has endured significant shoulder, knee and ankle injuries.

“It's not just the disease making this decision for me,” Riiber said in an interview with The Associated Press. “It's the total package.”

Riiber is stepping away from a grueling sport that combines ski jumping and cross-country skiing to spend more time with his partner, Sunna Margret Tryggvadóttir, and their young daughter and son.

“Even when results come, I don’t find the joy in it anymore,” he said. “The sport consumes my entire day, every day, and it feels like I am a prisoner to my own goals.”

Riiber is competing this week in Seefeld, Austria, where he won his first World Cup event a decade ago when he was 17 and was making his third start on the circuit.

Last season, he won 16 of 19 events and didn't finish lower than second place to win his fifth overall title by a large margin.

“Jarl hasn’t just dominated, he’s redefined what it means to be a combined athlete and lifted the sport to new heights," said Norwegian teammate Jorgen Graabak, a two-time Olympic individual champion.

Riiber leads the current World Cup standings — ahead of German rivals Vinzenz Geiger and Julian Schmidt — as he aims for for a sixth overall title that would break a record he shares with all-time great Eric Frenzel of Germany.

He will not, however, have a chance to complete his career with Olympic gold.

Riiber is leaving a sport he has dominated less than a year before the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics.

He went into the 2022 Beijing Olympics as the favorite and left with a heartbreaking result. After testing positive for COVID-19 in China, he was in isolation for about two weeks and had less than 24 hours to prepare for the final Nordic combined event. Unfamiliar with the cross-country course, he took a wrong turn to lose his lead before fading to an eighth-place finish.

At the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, he just missed the podium with fourth-place finishes in both individual events. He won a silver medal in the team event.

“My Olympic career hasn't been what I expected, but it's not going to be what defines my career for me,” Riiber told the AP. "When I was a child, I dreamed of being like Eric Frenzel and dominating the sport.

“I have lived my dream.”

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AP Sports: https://apnews.com/sports