Ski Alpin: Hirscher after birth of his son: “No change”.

Coach Michael Pircher had found what he was looking for on the slopes, the seven-time overall alpine ski world cup winner Marcel Hirscher brought together a good number of slalom training days on the glaciers. Friday afternoon we go for a short trip to Finland, where the first slalom and for the men the first World Cup race of the winter will take place on Sunday in Levi.

After the cancellation of the Sölden giant slalom, the preparation for the slalom skis was changed. Dachstein, Pass Thurn, Mölltaler Glacier and now also its “tribal area” Reiteralm are the training stations of Hirschers.

“It’s not untypical of the season for us to drive around a bit. In any case, we trained very well on the local glaciers. And now also the Reiteralm will still go, they will surely get it on Friday”, said Pircher.

The “full concentration” has been used to bring the slalom “into shape”, said the long-time coach of the five-time slalom disciplinist winner. Apart from last year, when Hirscher’s ankle injury made training before Levi almost impossible, the number of training days was about the same as in previous years. In winter 2017/18 Hirscher won seven of nine special slaloms in the World Cup, he finished second in Kitzbühel and 17th in Levi.

The fact that Hirscher, after the birth of his son, allows himself the opportunity to skip one or two races during the winter does not fundamentally change the training, Pircher affirms. “We look from race to race, after Levi we focus on Beaver Creek. Everything’s the same here, nothing’s changed. There’s no change compared to past preparations or racing calendars, but Marcel is open to short-term changes.”

An opportunity to train on the training slope in Levi had also arisen, but had not been noticed because of the weather. “In the last two weeks it was zero degrees, cloudy, foggy and had high humidity. On weekends there will be sunshine and relaxation. When the clouds are gone, the temperatures go down, then we get a pretty hard track. I expect everything to fit,” Pircher said optimistically.

Hirscher has already won twice north of the Arctic Circle. He named the reindeer he won in 2013 Ferdl, the one from 2016 Leo. “As always, Marcel enjoys skiing to the fullest, it’s fun for him. He also enjoys it at home. But you don’t see any difference when skiing, there’s the same fire as always,” Pircher said.