The Sochi downhill course where Maria Hoefl-Riesch plans to end her career with a third Olympic gold is "really challenging," the German ski star said Wednesday.
The world's leading female skiers trained on the Olympic downhill course for the first time Wednesday ahead of a World Cup stage this weekend.
"The slope is really challenging, especially the top part of the downhill. So the slope is of the Olympic level," Hoefl-Riesch said after practice runs.
"Everything looks good. Of cause not everything is ready yet, but it is normal. There still two years of time," she said, adding that gusty winds forced the skiers to slow down before jumps.
Hoefl-Riesch, 27, told German website sportal.de earlier this week that she hoped to retire after winning a gold medal at the Sochi Olympics.
"It would be wonderful to get another gold there, my third gold medal at the Olympics. If this dream were to be fulfilled, that would probably also be the right time to stop," she said.
Asked whether she could repeat her feat of winning two gold medals at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, she said: "Why not? Of course everything has to come together at the right moment, your form has to be right and everything has to go excellently."
Hoefl-Riesch was born in the Bavarian ski racing capital of Garmisch-Partenkirchen and raced as Maria Riesch before marrying her manager last year.
She won gold in the slalom and super combined in Vancouver, and won her first overall World Cup title in 2011, becoming the first German skier to win a men's or women's title since Katja Seizinger in 1998.
