Dave Ryding, Britain’s first-ever Alpine skiing World Cup winner and one of Britain’s all-time greatest winter sport athletes, will retire at the close of the 2025-26 season.
The 38-year-old has competed on the elite circuit for ten years, securing seven podiums – six in slalom, one in parallel slalom – in that time. The highlight of his career to date was a historic win in Kitzbuhel in 2022, the first by a Brit in the World Cup’s 55-year history.
Ryding is one of four British skiers to have ever recorded World Cup podiums - the most recent a third place in Madonna di Campiglio in December 2023 - and the only one to claim a victory, as well as amassing three World Championships top-10s and two Olympic top-10s over the course of his career.
Ryding said it was a “natural” decision to retire and that it was important for him to go out on a high. He recorded his best-ever World Championships results in the 2024-25 edition in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Austria, a sixth place in slalom, and his goal is to secure a similar career best in the Winter Olympics next year.
The Lancashire native told The Independent that, “After the last Olympics, I think I was quoted as saying, I'd rather cry than do another four years, or have a divorce or something like that! I wasn't thinking I would get another four years out of myself. As you get older the younger guys catch you up and you naturally peter out. So I took it year by year, and I really felt like I went in all in every year.”
But the drive and hunger to compete remained, and with Milan-Cortina on the horizon, Ryding says it felt like the “right time” to announce this would be his final season.
“It was quite an easy decision, taking into consideration my family as well and the sacrifices they make with me being away. It was nice to think, let's draw a line there and go absolutely all in again, and then come the Olympics try to do my best ever performance.”
Ryding, who is Britain’s highest-ranked Alpine skier, competed in seven world Championships and Milan-Cortina is set to be his fifth Olympics for Great Britain.
He took a different route than most elite Alpine skiers, growing up training and competing on dry slopes in the UK before making the transition to snow in his 20s. He made his debut on the World Cup circuit in 2009, making history as the oldest race winner in 2022 aged 35, as well as the first Briton.
His highest placing at an Olympics so far was ninth in slalom in Pyeongchang in 2018. He will likely continue to contest the final World Cups of the 2025-26 season after the Games next February, but that will be his final major goal as a professional athlete.
“Whether that’s the number one spot or eighth, let’s see, but I want to be better than ninth and sign off with my best ever Olympic result,” he said. “That’s exactly where my mind’s at, to do the best I’ve ever done.”
