Norway’s winter sports loses the next superstar: After the biathlon brothers Johannes Thingnes and Tarjei Bö, the combiner Jarl Magnus Riiber also declared his resignation at the end of the season. As the record world champion announced at a press conference, the disease Crohn’s disease was diagnosed with him, which explains his persistent health problems. “The past few months have been shaped by little training and many hospital stays,” said the 27-year-old. It is a chronic bowel disease associated with a variety of problems. Abdominal pain and diarrhea are typical symptoms, as well as inflammation in tendons and joints. He would have to do with this disease all his life, said Riiber, most recently he felt like a “prisoner”.
At the home World Cup in Trondheim (February 26 to March 9), Riiber now wants to do everything possible to get a worthy conclusion to his great career. With eight World Cup titles and 76 World Cup victories, the exceptional athlete, born in Oslo, is the most successful combinator in history. He is only missing an Olympic victory, but he does without a new attempt in 2026. “That is no longer important to me,” said Riiber: “I would have to make more health victims now.” Despite his problems, which forced him again and again, he leads the overall World Cup again before the races in Seefeld at the weekend. It would be his sixth success in the overall World Cup.
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