{"id":416096,"date":"2026-01-16T04:29:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T04:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/416096\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T04:29:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T04:29:09","slug":"belle-brockhoff-former-snowboard-cross-world-champ-forced-to-retire-weeks-before-winter-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/416096\/","title":{"rendered":"Belle Brockhoff, former snowboard cross world champ, forced to retire weeks before Winter Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former world champion Belle Brockhoff’s competitive snowboarding career is over, with major injuries forcing the three-time Olympian into retirement.<\/p>\n

The 33-year-old’s announcement today comes weeks from the 2026 Games in Italy where she hoped to again compete in the snowboard cross and mixed team event.<\/p>\n

Brockhoff narrowly missed a medal at the last Winter Olympics in Beijing, finishing a devastating fourth in the women’s race.<\/p>\n

The first Australian woman to win a snowboard cross World Cup gold medal among 17 podium finishes in total, Brockhoff also partnered Jarryd Hughes to win the mixed world title in 2021.<\/p>\n

But two serious injuries cruelled her hopes of lining up for another Olympics, with the Milan-Cortina Games underway on February 6 (local time).<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Belle Brockhoff narrowly missed a medal at the 2022 Games in Beijing. (AAP: Dan Himbrechts)<\/p>\n

Brockhoff suffered a gruesome fractured wrist in a 2024 training accident and had plates surgically inserted.<\/p>\n

In March last year, she crashed heavily near the end of a World Cup race in Georgia and was airlifted to Greece.<\/p>\n

Scans revealed a fracture of the L1 vertebra, with pins and rods inserted in her back.<\/p>\n

Brockhoff released a statement on social media today, revealing she had called time on competitive racing.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been rehabbing a complicated compound fracture in my wrist and a fractured L1 vertebra in my spine,” she wrote.<\/p>\n

“I’ve rehabbed and trained hard for many months and I know my body’s limits. It is with this and more than 20 years of snowboarding that I know in my heart it is time to step away from competitive racing.”<\/p>\n

\"Belle<\/p>\n

Belle Brockhoff is a former world champion in the snowboard cross. (AP: Aaron Favila)<\/p>\n

Brockhoff said she would miss racing around the world but was ready to embrace her future away from the sport.<\/p>\n

“I will miss everything that snowboard cross has given me \u2014 it’s been my passion, my identity and my greatest adventure,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I will still go riding, share that love of snowboarding with the next generation and stay connected to this incredible community.<\/p>\n

“But right now, the competitive chapter that defines so much of my life has come to a close. I’m excited for this next chapter in life. It feels right and I’m ready.”<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former world champion Belle Brockhoff’s competitive snowboarding career is over, with major injuries forcing the three-time Olympian into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416097,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,219553,3899,190438,1793,219554,85,31080],"class_list":["post-416096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-belle-brockhoff","tag-injury","tag-milan-cortina","tag-retirement","tag-snowboard-cross","tag-sports","tag-winter-olympics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}