Daniela Ryf Retires, Will Not Race IM World Championships
Daniela Ryf, the most decorated long-course athlete of all time, today announced her immediate retirement from professional triathlon.
Ryf had planned to step away from long-course racing after the IRONMAN World Championships in Nice, France. However, a coccyx injury was recently determined to be from inflammation in Ryf’s spinal cord, leading to the immediate decision to retire.
“I’ve been treating it with the hope of being able to race again towards the end of the year. We’ve tried everything to recover, but the treatment hasn’t been as effective as we had hoped. It’s time to respect the signs my body has been giving me,” Ryf wrote on Instagram.
Ryf won a combined record 10 IRONMAN world titles, with five victories at each the IRONMAN and IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships. In a stretch running from 2014 to 2019, Ryf started 41 races, winning 35 of them. Ryf’s career winning percentage at long course events is 73.7%. Of all her long-course races, Ryf finished off the podium (or did not finish) only 19.6% of the time.
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