End of career at the age of 22 Why our Swiss figure skating star is already retiring

At the age of just 22, Swiss figure skater Alexia Paganini is retiring. Now she has spoken out about the reasons.

Swiss figure skater Alexia Paganini recently announced her retirement on her Instagram account. Born in the USA, the 22-year-old has competed for Switzerland since 2017. Her father comes from Brusio GR.

Paganini has now spoken out about the reasons for her early retirement from top-level sport. "I thought about the decision for a long time," she told 20 Minuten. She no longer wanted to sacrifice everything to be at the level she expected of herself.

"I realized that I had achieved everything I had set out to do, no longer had a direct goal and felt passion for other things," Paganini is quoted as saying.

Focus on ice shows

The 22-year-old made it into the top 10 four times at the European Championships, with her best ranking being 4th place in 2020. She represented Switzerland twice at the Olympic Games.

At national level, there was no getting past Paganini between 2018 and 2022. She triumphed four times at the Swiss Championships. Recently, however, things have not gone as well as she would have liked.

She is "very happy" with her career. The longer it's been since her last competition, "the more I realize what I've achieved".

Now she wants to enjoy her life - and remain faithful to figure skating. In future, Paganini wants to concentrate on ice shows such as Art on Ice and other projects. Although this will remove the pressure of competition, Paganini is not taking her new plans lightly: "I want to give my best performance at every show and put on great shows."