'I hope you are ready Jens!' – Retired Riiber relishes new role with Norway team

If you’re the most successful Nordic Combined athlete of all time, what do you do the day after you call time on your career?

Not if you’re Jarl Magnus Riiber. The five‑time overall champion, with a record 78 individual World Cup wins and 111 podiums in 147 starts, announced in January he would retire at season’s end after being diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. Even before his farewell in Oslo on 16 March, he had agreed to stay with the Norwegian team as an ‘equipment expert’ to pass on his know‑how.

The morning after his last race—where he eased off in the Compact cross‑country to salute home fans—Riiber was back on the hill working with Jens Luraas Oftebro. “I knew my job would be easier if we started earlier with the testing,” he said in a FIS Race Talk in Trondheim. “I was calling Jens – ‘I hope you are ready tomorrow!’”

Riiber explained that years of relentless pursuit had eroded his joy, citing time away from family and the demands of staying healthy as reasons for retiring. His career featured 11 World Championship golds (six individual), but Olympic gold eluded him: PyeongChang 2018 brought team silver and two fourths; in Beijing 2022, after COVID isolation, a wrong turn in the Large Hill Gundersen squandered a 44‑second lead, with teammates Jørgen Graabak and Jens Luraas Oftebro taking gold and silver.

Despite Milano‑Cortina 2026 looming, Riiber says he has no regrets: “If I had that feeling, I would go for one more season… But I felt the time was over, especially after I told people I was retiring because of this disease.”

Norway is now in transition without Riiber and also two‑time Olympic champion Graabak, who has retired. Since Riiber’s final podium (2nd to Vinzenz Geiger in Oslo on 15 March), Norwegian men have missed the podium in seven straight events. Jens Luraas Oftebro was 5th in the Ruka Compact but a poor PCR jump left him over eight minutes back in the Gundersen; he did not start the cross‑country. Einar Luraas Oftebro achieved a career‑best 4th in Ruka and two 9ths; Andreas Skoglund has placed 8th (Ruka) and 11th (Trondheim).

Riiber’s new task is to help Norway’s strong skiers reduce their deficits from the jumping phase. “I’m trying to make a package for the athlete which works together with their technique. I have been a pain in the arse for them the whole summer… We have Cortina coming soon and huge technical difficulties we must fix fast.” He is taking athletes to the hill to implement changes, acknowledging one season is short but hoping to build momentum.

Few are better placed to guide that turnaround than Riiber, who dominated the hill for years and controlled many races on the tracks. His focus now is turning his mastery into competitive gains for his former teammates as Norway retools for 2026.