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Time to say good-bye: Nordics
As always, the spring time is the moment for World Cup athletes to take a step back and reflect on their careers, with some choosing to hang up their skis and move on. Based on the information that has come to the attention of the FIS Newsflash, the upcoming FIS Nordic World Cup season 2012/2013 will be without Cross-Country skiers Odd Bjoern Hjelmeset of Norway, Silvana Bucher (SUI), Ivan Batory (SVK) whilst Emilie Vina, Elodie Bourgeois-Pin and Caroline Weibel will be missing from the French ladies' team. In Ski Jumping the biggest name retiring is Finland's Matti Hautamäki.
The always smiling Odd-Bjoern Hjelmeset from Nordfjordeid earned 19 individual podiums including eight World Cup wins during his long World Cup career, which began in 1993. The classical technique specialist won the gold medal over 50 km in Sapporo 2007 and three bronze medals in Ramsau 1999, in Lahti 2001 and Oberstdorf 2005. Hjelmeset also won the bronze medal at the Salt Lake City 2002 Games in the 50km and a silver medal in the 4x10 km relay in Vancouver 2010 as well as three relay titles at the World Championships in Oberstdorf, Sapporo and Liberec.
The Swiss ladies' team will be missing Silvana Bucher who too has chosen to end her long career. The 27-year-old Swiss A-team athlete had to fight with many health problems and even skip the complete 2008/2009 season due to a viral infection. Silvana Bucher's career best results include the U23 world champion title from 2006 in Tarvisio and two top ten World Cup results in the 2010/11 season in Oslo and Rybinsk.
Cross-Country skiing veteran Ivan Batory of Slovakia has also decided to quit professional skiing after almost 20 years at the top level. Batory made his World Cup debut in 1993 and during his career scored three World Cup podiums. The five-time Olympian had his most successful appearance at the Games in Torino 2006 with an 8th place in the team sprint.
The team event at the season finals in Planica (SLO) was the final competition of a long career for Matti Hautamäki. The Finn is one of the most successful ski jumpers with 16 World Cup wins, and third place in the overall World Cup twice. In 2003 he won silver in the individual competition and gold with the team at the World Championships in Val di Fiemme. A year earlier he won silver in the team competition at the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, only 0.1 points behind Germany and an individual bronze medal, whilst in 2006 he won Olympic silver behind the surprise gold medallist Lars Bystoel. In the 2004/05 season he won six World Cups in a row which remains a record to this day with no jumper having equalled this feat.
Matti Hautamäki may never have won a major title, but he was part of the successful Finnish ski jumping team for more than ten years.
In Nordic Combined, all the top athletes are planning to continue their careers based on currently available information.
Contributed by fiscrosscountry.com