 He ran significantly worse in the 1982 European Athletics Championships in Athens and in the 1983 World Athletics Championships in Helsinki, Finland, placing only tenth and twelfth, respectively.Ryffel's final few years as a competitive runner, after the Los Angeles Olympics, were also rather undistinguished.He placed third in a time of slightly over 14 minutes at 5,000 metres in the European Athletics Cup's B final in Budapest in 1985.