Marcel Hirscher is currently surfing the wave of success and would like to prove this on Sunday (10.30/13.30) in the giant slalom of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. If he wins, the Salzburg man would have celebrated ten victories in one season, something he has never achieved before:”I don’t think of points, I want to win races,”said the exceptional skier in Austria’s ski team.
On Tuesday evening Hirscher took his 54th birthday in Schladming. World Cup victory and equalled the ÖSV best mark that Hermann Maier had written in history in November 2008 with his last victory in Lake Louise. With number 55, he would be on a par with the Swiss Vreni Schneider:”Now I’m definitely achieving records that I’m really proud of,”the 28-year-old was pleased to say last.
“When I remember the summer when I was lying on the couch with a cast weighing about five kilos, I didn’t think I could win races this season,”Hirscher said,”that’s the difference. I don’t think about points, I want to win races because I feel like I’m able to win races at the moment, but I have to give a hundred percent. I’m not thinking tactics or scoring points.”
Andreas Puelacher, head of men’s racing sport Andreas Puelacher, was relatively speechless in view of the Hirscher phenomenon:”For me, he is the best skier in the world, there’s nothing more to say. He brings everything it takes to be a superstar. How he behaves, how I experience him, what else can you say? We’re running out of superlatives anyway.”
In giant slalom, Hirscher’s dominance this year is similar to that of slalom – the difference is that fewer races have taken place. The Austrian won three of the four competitions, excluding the parallel RTL in Alta Badia, and the Frenchman Alexis Pinturault won one of them.
After his victory in Adelboden on Epiphany, Hirscher had not been able to train giant slalom until the end of this week due to the program. The schedule after the night race provided for a visit to Vienna early the next day on the occasion of the Olympic farewell.
The fact that this was not ideal with regard to the preparation for the two World Cup races before the trip to South Korea, which will be taking place at the City Event in Stockholm, makes sense:”I am aware that this is how it works, the business. But the timing is of course very, very bad,”Hirscher remarked.”I’m racing on Sunday, again on Tuesday.”
Philipp Schörghofer will not be at the start in Garmisch, although he is fit again. Out of consideration for his injured status, the Salzburg rider will not participate in World Cup races this season and will only contest the Olympic RTL. The Austrian team for South Korea is fixed. It consists of Hirscher, Manuel Feller, Stefan Brennsteiner and Schörghofer.
“The giant slalom team is standing by, unless something else happens that I can’t foresee,”confirmed Puelacher of the APA – Austria Press Agency.”If anyone should bang into it, he would be a topic again”, he added.”If someone is really fast and points out, then I reconsider: Do I need it, don’t I need it? Who is faster, who is better?
Christian Hirschbühl, too, is still a concrete thought for the Pyeongchang line-up despite three slalom zeros in series “We know that he drives very fast. We have to take everything into account,”stressed Puelacher,”We want him to ski fast. If he drops out, it’s not good, but once he gets through, he’ll be in the lead.”