Richard Jouve, a key member of the French cross-country skiing team, announced his retirement at the age of 31 on Saturday, March 21. The winner of the sprint small globe in the 2022 World Cup and a double Olympic bronze medalist, he explained that he had “lost the flame.”
The French champion Richard Jouve announced on Saturday, March 21, that he was ending his sports career at the age of 31, marking the end of one of the most impressive careers in French cross-country skiing of the last decade.
On social media, the skier from Briançon explained that he had “made the decision to end [his] career”, a mature choice after over twenty years on skis. “It is time today to share with you a decision that I made some time ago. After more than twenty years on skis, I have made the decision to end my career,” he wrote on his Instagram account.
He added that he had “experienced incredible moments, with strong emotions, successes, but also doubts and more difficult periods,” but that “this flame had disappeared.”
A remarkable journey
On a sports level, he leaves behind an impressive record. Jouve notably became the first Frenchman to win a small crystal globe in sprint in the 2022 World Cup. In January 2023, he achieved his most prestigious victory in a competition held in the Jura mountains. At the Olympic Games, the skier shone multiple times: winning a bronze medal in the team sprint at the PyeongChang Games in 2018, alongside Maurice Manificat, and another third place in the 4x10km relay in Beijing in 2022 with Manificat, Clément Parisse, and Hugo Lapalus.
In addition to these successes, the French skier also experienced four individual sprint victories in the World Cup and around twenty podium finishes in total on the world circuit. In his farewell message, Richard Jouve emphasized the total commitment he had put into his career: “I have always given everything, with heart and with the desire to do my best, again and again,” he said to justify his decision. “Even though the love for the sport is still there, the daily training routine has become a mental challenge.” Today, he says he is “proud of the path taken. Proud to have, on my scale, left a mark on French cross-country skiing.”
