Vice world champion hangs skeleton

class=”sc-3778e872-0 cKDKQr”>

Actually, Marina Gilardoni (36) resigns at the striker. Her last performance on the ice rink is the race of her life. She fights for gold at the World Skeleton Championships for a long time and becomes vice world champion.

The problem: this World Cup in Altenberg was three years ago. Since then, the St. Gallen experienced an unprecedented injury drama. After two violent crashes in the 2020 and 2021 pre-season, nothing was the same for Gilardoni.

Due to the concussion she suffered twice, she struggled with dizziness for weeks and months once she intensified her training again. Last fall there was also shoulder surgery.

“Can’t challenge health further”

Several ice channel comeback attempts fail. Three seasons pass as the number two in the world rehabs in a rehab clinic. But now the best Swiss skeleton athlete is stepping down.

“My heart would love to ride skeleton for another ten years and enjoy the intoxication of speed, the (international) competition feeling, etc.”, Gilardoni writes in her resignation.

But she also writes, “The rational part of me is screaming louder and louder to take note of the myriad of signals and not challenge my health any further. Too much has happened in recent years not to listen.”

Last February, she tested her body in St. Moritz during a few training rides. But the impressions confirm that there is no way back to the top of the world. Gilardoni can live a normal day-to-day life – but no more breakneck main rides at the highest level.

Above all, the brutal fall in the Olympic training camp in October 2021 in the ice channel in Beijing cost de St. Galler the continuation of his career. Gilardoni hit the wall at about 100 km/h. It’s a life-threatening crash. “Looking back, I know I was very lucky. October 10 is my second birthday,” Gilardoni said today.

In the three years of her comeback attempts, she missed the highlights of the 2022 Olympics and the 2023 World Cup at home. She holds no grudge against her sport: Gilardoni: “I look forward to supporting the future generation in achieving of their goals.”

Source : Blick