31. Januar 2009  
Austria  
Artistic Gymnastics

Austria s World Cup bronze medal winner Sandra Mayer announces her retirement

Sandra MAYER (AUT): Retirement

* Ö F T --: Just under two years after her last competition at the World Cup in Cottbus in March 2007, which ended sadly with a torn cruciate ligament, Austrian gymnast  Sandra Mayer has now drawn a line under her career as an active gymnast and  in the last week of January 2009 announced her retirement from international competition.
The 20-year old who won the Austrian national championships six times was the first Austrian gymnast to win a World Cup medal: "I have experienced all the ups and downs," she says.

World Cup bronze at the 38. Solomunov-Memorial 2005 in Maribor

Mayer's finest hour in international gymnastics came at the end of October 2005, when she even managed to outperform the then-reigning Olympic champion Monica Rosu (ROU) in the vault finals at the World Cup in Marburg and to gain the bronze medal in a field featuring numerous other Olympic and European Championship medal winners. 
The potential of this talented gymnast from Upper Austria became evident when she achieved sixth place at the Stuttgart World Cup in autumn 2004.
Mayer's world-class ability was confirmed when she was placed fourth in Marburg 2006 and seventh in the Paris World Cup 2005: - all high points on the international calendar in which the best gymnasts in the world compete!
Having taken part in five European and World Championships(between 2003 and 2006), she was regarded as certain of nomination for an FIG quota place at the Beijing Olympics*, but her career unfortunately came to an abrupt end as a result of the torn ligament. ** Source: ÖFT-Info, Mag. R. Labner,