Sporty farewells of the year
For some people, dreams of ending their careers turn into nightmares
December 31, 2023, 9:13 a.m
Biathlete Denise Herrmann-Wick lives the perfect farewell to sport: With gold and two silver, she leaves the big stage at the home World Championships. Things are also going great for Eric Frenzel, who immediately switches sides. Triathlete Jan Frodeno is likely to have a bit of trouble, but others are having a really bad time.
Eric Frenzel didn’t quite work out. The Olympic champion will remain as a coach for his Nordic combination, but his active career is over. “It’s now a nice moment to retire,” said Frenzel in March after his 18th World Cup medal, after which it was over. Like for so many others.
Big names have left the sports stage in 2023. In addition to combination king Frenzel, there are triathlon hero Jan Frodeno, the biathlete and former cross-country skier Denise Herrmann-Wick, toboggan idol Natalie Geisenberger, soccer magician Mesut Özil and Tom Brady, the greatest of all time (GOAT) in American football.
Not everyone showed a golden touch when they said goodbye. Brady should have stayed strong after his first retirement last year instead of going backwards 40 days later. But even though his 23rd and final NFL season was a failure, the US professional league lost its most successful player in history in quarterback. After six Super Bowl victories with the New England Patriots and another with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Brady drew an emotional and this time final conclusion via an Instagram video in the spring.
It would have been better for Özil to have stopped years ago
Frodeno also imagined the last race of his picture-perfect career to be completely different. The 2008 Olympic champion gave his all once again for his fourth Ironman World Championship triumph, but the “Gladiator” still sank in the heat of Nice. “The lions got me today,” said Frodeno after his 24th place in September. At the end of “an incredible journey,” the former dominator was simply grateful for what he had achieved. And his friend and long-time opponent Sebastian Kienle also said goodbye; at the triathlon gala in Frankfurt they had to go through several more battles at the end of the year, including holding up a beer mug.
In retrospect, the perfect time for Özil to end his career would have been after the 2014 World Cup title in Brazil. The artist celebrated his heyday at Real Madrid and the 2010 and 2014 World Cup finals with the DFB team; on a good day, his game was pure magic. However, Özil also has – at least from a German perspective – inappropriate proximity to the autocratic Turkish head of state Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. A photo with “his president” shortly before the 2018 World Cup and the subsequent disaster tarnished his career. Five years later he quit.
Frenzel is already back with his old team
Others, however, found the right time. Toboggan queen Geisenberger didn’t just want to stop “when it’s at its best.” Above all, she wants to be “where it is most beautiful. At home with my family!” That’s what Geisenberger wrote about an Instagram photo that showed her with her trophies. And she has some of them. With six gold and one bronze medals, Geisenberger is the most successful German Winter Olympian in history. She also won nine world championship titles and the overall World Cup eight times. In addition to Geisenberger, the doubles record world champions Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken also ended their active careers in the ice rink.
The biathlete and former cross-country skier Denise Herrmann-Wick took part in the home World Championships in Oberhof after her Olympic triumph in the individual event as well as gold and two silver medals. As an expectant mother, she has ventured into new territory. And the three-time combined Olympic champion Frenzel also left, only to immediately compete again in a new role. Successful national coach Hermann Weinbuch also resigned at the end of the season after 27 years, clearing the way for Frenzel’s new career.