Norway’s Johannes Thingnes Bø, the world’s top male biathlete, announced he will retire after this season instead of after the 2026 Olympics.
Bø, 31, held a tearful press conference Saturday in Ruhpolding, Germany, which is hosting World Cup competition this week.
“For 13 years I have been part of the world’s best national team, with the world’s best sponsors behind me,” was posted on Bø’s social media, according to a translation, along with a photo of him with his two young children. “For the last six seasons I have combined top sport with family life. It has been fantastic, but also challenging. Now I feel that the time has come to prioritize the family. According to the plan, I was supposed to continue for another year, but the Olympic commitment requires even more, also from those around me. I still love to compete but competition days are few compared to all the other days. Let’s enjoy the last races together, before we end (at the World Cup Finals) with a bang in Holmenkollen on March 20-23!”
Bø had previously said for years that he planned to make the 2025-26 Olympic season his final one before leaving the sport to focus more on his family.
“When I came home for Christmas and talked through it, I felt like it was the only right thing to do,” he said. “It’s like in 20 years when my kids move out, I will not regret (not competing) this one extra year.”
Bø owns five Olympic gold medals and eight total Olympic medals. He is tied with retired countryman Ole Einar Bjørndalen for the most world titles in biathlon history (20).
If he repeats his haul of seven total medals from 2023 and 2024 at this February’s worlds, he will tie Bjørndalen’s record 45 career world medals.
He also won the World Cup overall title five of the last six years and leads this season’s standings over countryman Sturla Holm Lægreid.
“It takes a lot of you and the people around you to maintain the No. 1 position in a sport,” Bø said. “I felt it first time after Olympic Games in ’22. I needed a break.
“I have a gift that’s quite amazing. I almost don’t need to train to be No. 1, but still it’s not enough to continue for one year. I feel ready for the next. No when the decision is taken, the head is already zoomed out from the sport. The next competition and the next race, the next World Cup points and so on, it’s not so important when you have a family.”
