Alpine skiing: Hirscher burns for second Sölden victory – Feller “would like to be like Connor McGregor”.

Of seven classic giant slaloms Marcel Hirscher has won six in the last World Cup season and has thus won his fifth small crystal ball in this discipline. At the season opener on Sunday in Sölden (10.00/13.00 o’clock in the LIVETICKER) the Salzburger starts on his second victory on the Rettenbachferner after 2014.

With 28 World Cup victories, Hirscher is the second most successful giant goalscorer in history after the Swede Ingemar Stenmark (46). He is the season’s sixth winner in a row, has won nine of the last ten races and, as world champion and Olympic champion, has dominated the discipline for years.

“At a certain stage of development, we were super competitive or a little ahead. Whether this will be the case this year, I dare to doubt, because the others do not sleep either,” he said about the competition.

The conditions in the preparation had been difficult. But as far as the possibilities are concerned, the maximum has certainly been done. Because no training was possible on the race slope in Sölden, every athlete has “a big question mark whether he has the right setup for this difficult race together”.

The second best giant slalom runner Henrik Kristoffersen in the pre-season is, according to his own statements, in very good shape despite a toe fracture in summer. With the Slalom Crystal 2016, the 24-year-old Norwegian has only one World Cup ball at home.

Ted Ligety from the USA dreams of his fifth Sölden victory after 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2015, the Frenchman Alexis Pinturault hopes to have caught up again. “Let’s see if I can fight for the giant slalom ball. Sunday will show that,” said the disciplinary action of the previous year. He is the defending champion on the Rettenbach glacier from 2016, as the 2017 race fell victim to the storm.

Manuel Feller is hot on the podium, the training performances were promising. The Tyrolean has decided not to underestimate anyone on Sunday. You can’t afford to make mistakes anymore, this is a sport of perfection. I hope that I will get to the point, what I can do, then a super result will surely look out”.

He does not think of the missing first World Cup victory. “I stand at the start and concentrate on my two, three keypoints and done. I’d like to be like Conor McGregor, who says, ‘I’ll hit you in the head,’ but I don’t have the confidence.”

The ÖSV is bringing ten athletes to the start, including Roland Leitinger, Stefan Brennsteiner and Daniel Meier, who returned after cruciate ligament injuries, and Philipp Schörghofer, who was forced to take a longer break due to cartilage damage. “I’m confident that if they qualify they’ll still be able to deliver a good performance in the second race,” said Andreas Puelacher, Head of Men’s Racing Sports.

Vice World Champion Leitinger broke his right knee ligament in January during free skiing on the Reiteralm, since then he has concentrated on his comeback in Sölden. “My heart burns, my skier’s soul burns. It was already in the hospital so that Sölden was in view. It was a bit difficult in the summer when I had problems with the knee, but now it works well. Nothing limits me in skiing.”

Puelacher longs for the first comparison of forces, as he has not noticed much of the foreign teams. “Marcel and Manuel are fully fit and very well prepared,” he can confirm.

He is also happy about the comeback of a downhill racer in giant slalom, double Olympic champion Matthias Mayer has planned to compete in Sölden, Beaver Creek and Alta Badia for the time being. “In practice he showed a good performance, qualifying for the second run would be great,” said Puelacher.

Mayer’s targeting the top 20. The extra work is said to have been worth it. “There were some extra units in there. But one must also say that the giant slalom training does not harm the speed training. From that point of view, it’s a good story in both directions.” But the main focus is on the downhill and the Super-G. “My strengths are in speed, where I get my big points.”

ÖSV team for men’s giant slalom in Sölden: Marcel Hirscher, Manuel Feller, Roland Leitinger, Philipp Schörghofer, Stefan Brennsteiner, Matthias Mayer, Johannes Strolz, Dominik Raschner, Daniel Meier, Magnus Walch.