For ski-jumping team Olympic champion Andreas Kofler, the winter games in South Korea are no longer an issue “I have retired, both sporty and private. The reason is an autoimmune disease with which I have been complaining for a while,”said the 33-year-old in an interview with the Tiroler Tageszeitung. The primary goal of the 2006 Olympic runner-up is therefore to “recover”.
In the preparations for the season, he had “put his foot down, but I was getting weaker and weaker. My body fights its own cells. I didn’t want to believe it at first. At some point I had to accept it,”Kofler explained.
“It’s a physical story. I have no mental problems. On the contrary. I am motivated and want to progress in jumping. I realize, however, that my energy budget is not right” This “battery problem” needs to be solved now.
Last season, the 2010 Four Hills Tournament winner had already felt “that there was something wrong with my body. It went insidiously. I didn’t get the diagnosis until autumn. It takes time to heal, and this is the greatest challenge to give the body time. I have to charge the battery, otherwise I won’t make any more jumps in the World Cup,”emphasized Kofler, who has no time limit for a comeback.
“It would be casual to jump until the World Cup in 2019. That would be a nice career closure. That’s my long-term goal, and that’s where I’m going.”