Ski Alpin: Herren-Chef Puelacher:”Hirscher is supposed to go downhill”.

Andreas Puelacher makes no secret of what he could imagine for ski star Marcel Hirscher in the future:”I really want him to go downhill,”said the men’s racing leader in the ÖSV about the seven-time overall World Cup winner. At the final in Aare, downhill training is possible:”That’s what the coaches want, I’m going on holiday for a week now,”Hirscher said for the time being.

The speed contests in Kvitfjell (Norway) next weekend, Hirscher is missing out on schedule after the so successful race in Kranjska Gora with victories in giant slalom and slalom and the winning of three crystal balls. As early as next Monday, however, he could reach the long bar in the World Cup finals at the World Cup venue in 2019. That would be an investment in the future for the Olympic gold medallist with regard to the combined competition at the World Championships in Sweden in one year’s time.

Puelacher is convinced that one day the technical genius could also become a strong downhill skier,”Of course he needs training. Of course, he needs more than a year of training. He can’t come and say I win in a descent now, I can’t do that. But if he were to put that into his head, that would be a goal, for example. It would be an exciting task, I always tell him.”

Hirscher won everything that was possible for him in his career. As a non-speed rider in 2015 in Beaver Creek even a Super-G and one gold medal at the Olympic Games (2018) and one gold medal at the World Championships (2015) in combination with the downhill race as a partial event.

“If he’s got the target, if he wants to win a downhill race, I’ll trust him with everything. A lot of things have to fit together, but he has the skills to do it,”Puelacher is convinced,”but then he has to decide what he wants. He would say goodbye to the overall World Cup, because he would have to invest his time in the downhill race and leave behind one, if not two, disciplines”.

For a possible downhill victory Hirscher needs an intensive summer preparation, perfect material coordination, many kilometres and jumps:”He can jump, he just can’t dare it because he doesn’t have enough training,”Puelacher knows.

“If Marcel wants to do that, he has a plan, he makes a plan. And in the following year Hirscher only has to invest one year to get to know the World Cup downhill runs with the official training sessions and races “And in the following year I can say, yes, I know about that, I know how I have to behave,” said Puelacher.