PARIS (AP) — Former France forward Paul Willemse announced his retirement from rugby on Monday after sustaining multiple concussions during his career.
The South Africa-born lock has not played since October last year, when he was taken off for a concussion when playing for club side Montpellier. Willemse said he had been concussed six times in his career.
“After many years on the field, it is time to close this chapter,” Willemse posted on Instagram. “Choosing to stop after multiple concussions has been the hardest decision I’ve ever made. For a long time, I tried to hold on, because when you’ve lived one dream, it’s frightening to imagine life beyond it.”
He played in 32 tests for France and scored two tries as a tough-tackling and rampaging forward, who also had a strong running game and could break tackles. He became a regular under coach Fabien Galthié and helped France win the 2022 Six Nations with a Grand Slam.
Willemse's last appearance for Les Tricolores saw him red-carded against Ireland in the opening game of the 2024 Six Nations and suspended the next two games following a four-week ban.
He would have earned more caps but missed the 2023 Rugby World Cup because of a thigh injury.
After starting his club career in South Africa with Golden Lions and Blue Bulls, he moved to France in 2014 and played for Grenoble before joining Montpellier the following year, making over 170 appearances for the club.
“To the supporters who have followed me from South Africa to France, I carry your voices with me,” he added. “The victories, the struggles, the lessons, I wouldn't change any of it.”
AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby
FILE - France's Paul Willemse is tackled by New Zealand's Sam Whitelock and Ardie Savea during the international rugby union match between France and the All Blacks, at the Stade de France, in Saint Denis, north of Paris, Nov. 20, 2021. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena, File)
It was at a relatively minor event in upstate New York in September 2022 that Ilia Malinin, the self-anointed “Quad God" who was fast becoming the biggest name in figure skating, finally landed the jump that so many people had thought impossible.
Others had tried quad axels in competition over the years. All of them had fallen. That extra 180 degrees of rotation — necessary for the only jump in skating that starts with a forward-facing entry — proved to be a half-revolution too much.
So when Malinin landed it inside the arena made famous by the U.S. hockey team's upset of the Soviets at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, it not only sent shockwaves through the tight-knit skating community but made headlines around the world.
“My mind was just blown,” said two-time Olympic skater Jason Brown.
Yet by conquering the gravity-defying jump, Malinin also raised an important question: What comes next?
The six main jumps in figure skating have been standard since the early 1900s. The only difference between then and now is the number of revolutions. Dick Button landed the first double axel in 1948, and the first triple jump four years later. Kurt Browning landed the first quad, a toe loop, in 1988, and it was 10 years before Timothy Goebel landed the first quad salchow.
By landing the quad axel, Malinin may have maxed out the boundaries of human performance. Most sports scientists agree that the speed and amplitude necessary for five-revolution jumps truly is impossible, leaving figure skating at a crossroads, where a dearth of innovation threatens to take the shine off a sport already fighting to maintain popularity.
“I think it's kind of natural that we were going to get to this point,” said Malinin, the overwhelming favorite to win gold for the U.S. at the Milan Cortina Olympics. "But I haven't reached my top, whether it's in the technical and how much I can jump and spin, but also in the creativity.”
Malinin, 20, points to his signature “raspberry twist,” a somersaulting spin unlike anything that anybody else does. He created it himself, and it tends to bring down the house whenever he throws it down near the end of his programs.
Yet the flashy maneuver also underscores one of the inherent problems with trying to be creative: It doesn't get rewarded.
The International Skating Union has rigid requirements for both short programs and free skates, and it rarely pays off to deviate too far from the script. Malinin might not get a lot of extra points for landing his raspberry twist, for example, since it is not one of the six standard figure skating jumps, but a failure to land it could cost him dearly.
“Absolutely, there are a lot of things I've wanted to try,” Malinin told The Associated Press, “because I think it would be really cool and appealing. But it's a bigger risk for the program itself, and the system and scoring means it doesn't make sense.”
In other words, what's the point in trying to innovate?
“There are so many rules in your programs that you don't have too much wiggle room,” said Alysa Liu, the reigning world champion. “A lot of these rules really restrict us. Like, all of our spins look the same now, but they could look so different."
“One of my training mates, Sonja Himler, does these incredible programs," added Amber Glenn, a three-time U.S. champion, and along with Liu one of the favorites to win Olympic gold for the American team in February.
“Like, she spins the other way, jumps the other way — really cool things that, you know, someone who's watched a little bit of skating will be like, ‘Oh, I’ve never seen that before,'” Glenn said. “Whereas if I go and do, you know, the norm, and do it well, versus what she does, my scores will be better, even though what she does is way more impressive, in my opinion.”
Justin Dillon, the manager of high performance at U.S. Figure Skating, acknowledged having had hard conversations with some skaters about their programs. They may have planned something unique or interesting, but the risk wouldn't be worth the reward.
“I encourage individuality, and bringing it to the ice,” Dillon said, “but if they do something so avant-garde that it doesn't check those boxes, then it really doesn't serve them. It doesn't always mean throw it out, but what can we do to make it a home run?”
To its credit, figure skating's governing body has loosened some restrictions in recent years. The backflip, which was long banned in competition because of its inherent danger, is allowed now, though it also doesn't carry a whole lot of scoring weight.
Is that hold-your-breath element of risk and uncertainty the next big step in skating?
“I mean, you're cringing. It legit scares me," Glenn said of the backflip. “If you can do it, great. I think it's so fun. I want to learn it once I'm done competing. But the thought of practicing it in like, a warmup or in training, it just scares me.”
Brown has never been able to consistently land quad jumps in competition. Instead, he relies on near-perfect execution of triple jumps, along with arguably the best artistry in figure skating, to consistently challenge for podium placements in major competitions.
Maybe, Brown mused, the next innovation in figure skating has nothing to do with extreme feats of athletic ability.
“I have so much respect for the ways in which people are pushing the sport technically,” he said, "but I think the more that people fixate on executing an element, the less risk people take artistically, because they’re already taking these risks technically. And it is very hard to do both. So maybe the next step for figure skating is to reward the story we're trying to tell."
AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
Amber Glenn skates during the "Making Team USA" performance at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Amber Glenn skates during the "Making Team USA" performance at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Ilia Malinin skates during the "Making Team USA" performance at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Ilia Malinin competes during the men's free skate competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Ilia Malinin competes during the men's short program at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
