MURI BEI BERN, Switzerland—Former downhill world champion Bruno Kernen of Switzerland retired from Alpine skiing on Friday after 17 seasons on the World Cup circuit.
The 35-year-old said that a knee injury from March’s World Cup finals in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, forced his decision.
“My knee has been hurting since. In these conditions, it’s no longer possible to train normally,” said Kernen, who broke his nose, tore knee ligaments and suffered a concussion when he crashed and careened through two layers of safety netting in the season-ending World Cup downhill.
The downhill bronze medalist at the 2006 Turin Olympics, Kernen won the 1997 world championship title. At the worlds in Are, Sweden, earlier this year, Kernen took bronze in the super-G. He also earned a bronze in the downhill at the worlds in St. Moritz, Switzerland, in 2003.
