Austrian Morgenstern retires after January fall

VIENNA (Reuters) - Austrian three-times Olympic ski jump champion Thomas Morgenstern is retiring as of Friday after severely injuring himself in a fall earlier this year, he announced at a news conference. Morgenstern, 27, won two Olympic titles in the individual and team large hill event in Turin in 2006 and a team large hill gold in Vancouver in 2010, as well as many other titles. After a first ski jumping accident in December, Morgenstern in January sustained a serious head injury and a damaged lung after a fall in training. He went on to take part in the Sochi Winter Olympic games, but now said he would finish his career. "We did everything this summer to get my career back on track, to go where I wanted to go. I just didn't manage to get there," Morgenstern said in Salzburg. "If you're sitting up there thinking: Now the (ski) binding could snap, that was the deciding factor," he said, adding he would focus more on his private life. (Reporting by Shadia Nasralla; editing by Justin Palmer)