Ski Alpin: For Hirscher, the 2nd place would be the “Ski Alpin”.

Marcel Hirscher stacks deep in front of the giant slalom opening in Beaver Creek on Sunday. The six-time overall World Cup winner even fears that it could become scarce with a place among the top 30.

“If we don’t make a great deal of progress by then, I’ll have to worry about qualifying for the second round,”says the Salzburg resident in an interview with the crown. According to the newspaper, Hirscher is two seconds behind the giant slalom competition in training.

Hirscher says:”Yes, the boys are driving around my ears. My six overall World Cup trophies at home won’t do me any good. I can, figuratively speaking, take my medals off and have to start from scratch.”

It’s not the after-effects of ankle injuries that cause Hirscher so many problems, but the missed training runs. Due to the new giant slalom material, the three months of training lag is bigger than usual.

“It is not for nothing that people often talk about the Formula 1 of winter. Now it’s time to fiddle around. Normally, you have your things together at this time of the year. We are still at the very beginning, so to speak with the hardware. The fine adjustments come much, much, much later”, says Hirscher, who feels his ankle on the aggressive American snow a little more than in the last few weeks.

The 28-year-old is particularly sorry for Felix Neureuther’s injury:”I lack a friend to defame. And for Felix this is of course extremely bitter. But: The small hope for Olympia in Pyeongchang is still alive for him. And with the death of David Poisson, our ski family had to realize that unfortunately there are far more dramatic strokes of fate.”