Olympic sailing: Delle jumps off the Olympic wave

At the 2012 Olympic Games in Weymouth, Moana Delle was "the sun" in the DSV team alongside her surfing colleague Toni Wilhelm. With her motivation, her willingness to perform, her unbridled enjoyment of the sport and her great sense of fairness, she inspired many team-mates and kept the fans at home cheering her on until the very end. But now the Olympic fifth-placer is putting an end to competitive sport and says that she lacks "the last bit of motivation and a clear goal". She has achieved her personal goals with her performance at the last Olympic Games.

Moana Delle's retirement is a bitter loss for the German national sailing team. The Hanoverian by choice was part of the already small group of German athletes who, from today's perspective, could be expected to win an Olympic medal in the waters off the Olympic harbour Marina da Gloria in two and a half years' time. Delle's return to sailing after a long break from training was promising in August 2013 and was rewarded with seventh place at the Sailing World Cup off Palma de Mallorca, but according to Delle, this did not rekindle her old fire. The athlete with the fighter's heart no longer wants to fight. She is leaving the Olympic arena and said in her farewell speech: "When I do something, I want to do it out of deep conviction and with full commitment. Unfortunately, that's not enough."

The 2007 youth world champion is wistfully retiring: "When I'm among the sailors, I get melancholy. Competitive sport was a wonderful and valuable part of my life. The sport has taught me a lot. I'm sure it will also help me in the future." The Münster native, who grew up in Delecke/Möhnesee and Soest and was the first student to attend the sports boarding school in Kiel, leaves a gap in the women's Olympic surfing discipline that cannot be filled for the foreseeable future. There are no young female RS:X medallists in sight for the 2016 Olympic Games in Germany. This is why Delle's retirement has hit German sailing and Sailing Team Germany, who had pinned a lot of hope on the Olympic-experienced surfer's second Olympic campaign.

After her last outing at the World Cup final off Hyères (21 to 26 April), Moana Delle wants to concentrate on her studies in civil and environmental engineering, but also support the DSV and STG by passing on her experience to the next generation. But that generation must first grow up. The recent fickle decisions of the International Sailing Federation (Isaf) have not made this any easier, as surfing had been replaced by kitesurfing in the meantime and only regained its Olympic status after heated discussions.

Team-mate Toni Wilhelm said: "Moana's retirement is definitely a big loss for the team, as she could definitely have been a great medal hope in my eyes. That doesn't make it any easier for the German team to achieve its goals in Rio in the future."