ÖFB Team: Puelacher:”Maier doesn’t have to kneel before Hirscher”.

Austria’s men’s racing director Andreas Puelacher takes a relatively relaxed view of the discussion about the alleged animosities between the two ski idols Marcel Hirscher and Hermann Maier:”I don’t think Maier has to kneel down in front of the Hirscher and vice versa,”Puelacher told the APA in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

On Tuesday evening Hirscher held his 54th birthday party in Schladming. World Cup victory equalized the best mark of Maier. Maier congratulated his Salzburg compatriot immediately afterwards with a prepared broadcast, listing among other things that he won four crystal balls and 13 races in one season.

Since Hirscher has not yet managed to do so despite six overall World Cup victories, this was sometimes interpreted as a hidden criticism from Maier’s side. Hirscher, on the other hand,”retaliated” in the eyes of some by referring publicly to Alberto Tomba, who, in contrast to Maier on the 54th anniversary of his death, gave him a chance to take revenge. I congratulated him personally on his victory.

“I’m not really interested in such things”, Puelacher says,”Why should he congratulate him? He said he’s a super skier a couple of times. This is another time, another generation. I think it’s a friendly relationship between the two of them.”

Maier didn’t have to congratulate Hirscher personally, Puelacher noted,”But that’s just my personal opinion. Doesn’t mean he’s jealous of anything. They’re probably not that close friends that they talk to each other every day, and they don’t have to.”