Alpine Skiing: Hirscher: “Overall World Cup not an issue this year”

The seven-time overall World Cup winner Marcel Hirscher has shifted his priorities and assigned the role of favourite to the big trophy to his Norwegian competitor Henrik Kristoffersen. “The overall World Cup stage belongs to Henrik. It’s not an issue for me this year. Other opponents will play a greater role for him than I do,” said the dominator of recent years.

Hirscher, who recently became a father for the first time, leaves it open how many and which races he will drive next winter. “For me, it’s important that we drive this race here now. Then we’ll look further at how preparations for the next races are going,” he said before the Sölden giant slalom on Sunday. Also how often he will still drive on the Rettenbach glacier is questionable. “I can’t answer that now, it turns out. That depends on many factors.”

He is also curious himself about what might be possible on Sunday. The comparison with the colleagues had been okay, but it was not enough for a big judgement. “It was certainly a lot of dry training. I’ve been trying to keep fit. The training day today was very, very good, but probably has very little to do with the race then,” said Hirscher. “As for the setup, I didn’t do much around, it worked very, very well last year.”

Great fiddling was not possible because the conditions did not allow it. Stones that came to light on the slopes were a side effect after the long, warm summer. “It was a warm-up, we held back the good skis. Even today. The really good skis can’t be taken, because with every training run there’s a 50:50 chance whether the ski is completely broken or you can still fix it.” For all athletes it is difficult to find the set up. He assumes that he will ski with a ski from the previous season.

The goal for Sunday is to find a good start to the season. “And of course it’s all about being as fast as possible and winning races in the best case. But, and this is my assessment, it will take a bit until I find my way back into it. But basically the fire burns and it’s fun. I’m sure I’ve chosen the right path.”