Düsseldorf (dpa) – Former world and World Cup champion Severin Freund of Germany said on Sunday he was ending his ski jumping career with the day’s season finale on the Slovenian flying hill of Planica.

“I realised over the past weeks that the time as an active sportsman is coming to an end. I had really great years,” he said before wrapping up his career with jumps of 190.5 and 210 metres.

“I am at ease with myself after my comeback with great success over the past years, and I can end this chapter in my life the way I wanted to.”

A winner of 22 World Cup competitions, Freund, 33, won Olympic team event gold in 2014, the World Cup in 2015 and has 11 medals from ski jumping and ski flying world championships. Four of them were gold, including on the 2015 large hill and in the 2021 team event.

That latest success came after Freund battled through major injury problems with knee cruciate knee ligament ruptures making him miss more than two years of action and never fully regain his form of the past.

“I will miss him a lot. He was my idol for many years and I learnt a lot from him. He had an unbelievable career,” team-mate Karl Geiger said.