It means the 32-year-old's appearance at the Swiss National Championships in Davos over the weekend will be his last.

Gini remains the most recent Swiss winner of a World Cup slalom event, despite his triumph in Austrian resort Reiteralm coming way back in November 2007.

He finished 38th in the 2016-17 overall standings with 32 points.

"I always said I would ski as long as I considered myself capable of winning a race one more time," Gini said.

"Being outside of the top 30 makes this almost impossible."

Gini will now continue his physiotherapy studies, which began two years ago, and intends to use his experience from 14 years on the World Cup circuit in this area.

Victory in Reiteralm nearly 10 years ago was the highlight of his career with his next best World Cup result coming in front of a home crowd in Lenzerheide in March 2011, when he finished fourth.

Gini also won four times on the Europa Cup circuit and claimed six Swiss national titles, comprising four in slalom and one each in Alpine combined and giant slalom.

He started 124 World Cup races in all with 101 of them in slalom.

Gini's final World Cup race came last month in Slovenian town Kranjska Gora, which was the site of his debut in 2003.

Repeated injuries interrupted his progression and he often had to fight his way back through the Europa Cup to extend his World Cup career.