There is an article today in Norwegian media about why Maria had to retire
https://www.nrk.no/sport/maria-bjor...r-legene-bedt-henne-om-a-legge-opp-1.16484682
I will give a summary.
Maria was born with the heart issue and already had her first surgery at 3 days old. She had a new one at age 17 and in 2020 she finally got installed a pacemaker, which made her able to continue skating because the pacemaker was able to make her train intensive. Her main issue before the pacemaker was that her pulse was getting very low and she felt tired and drained. After the she got the pacemaker, the issue was resolved and she was able to pursue a competitive career and was feeling good training.
After EC Maria started to not feel well, and she went back to Oslo where they found out that one of the wires in her pacemaker wasn´t working. They wanted to replace the wires. At the first surgery they found out that one of the wires had grown into one of her heart valves. They ended the surgery as they couldn´t fix it there, but needed to reschedule with more surgeons to be able to remove it. So she went back to Stavanger to wait for the new surgery. This explains why she has been in Norway for months, I suspected since she was separated so many months with her partner, that it was due to her health.
Only a few weeks ago the new National team was announced and Maria and James was on the team, so I felt confident they would continue skating.
She was finally having the new surgery recently. Unfortunately, during the surgery - they found out that it was too dangerous to remove the wire from the valves, they have to leave it there so she didn´t get it replaced with new wires. So she has to end her career now, as it was the working pacemaker that made it possible for her to continue the intensive training. She will still be able to train, but not as such high level anymore.
If they would have been able to remove the wire and replace it with new, it seems she would have been able to continue skating, so this is a really sad outcome. After all this waiting that must be such hard news to get. But of course, health comes first and i´m sure the doctors did the right thing not removing the wire.
Maria says that she is sad, but proud of what they achieved. They had OG and WC as goals, and they were very close to WC, they already had the FS minimum. She still wants to be in the sport, so coaching is not unlikely. The Skating Union said they would like to use Marias knowledge to make Ice Dance grow as a sport in Norway, so i´m positive she will stay in the sport and continue growing the love of the sport as a coach.
That leaves Norway without an Ice Dance team again, and they were so promising.
