Highly decorated: Marcel Hirscher © APA/afp / JAVIER SORIANO

Hirscher's rocky return to the concert of the greats

Marcel Hirscher is at the beginning of his second career as an alpine ski racer. The multiple record holder in this profession cannot compete in the World Cup for the time being, as FIS regulations are primarily preventing this.

25 April 2024

From: apa

However, his companions believe that the fitness and ambition of the 35-year-old entrepreneur would not fail. But is a return to the top of the world even conceivable for the Dutchman or is it just a marketing move? For Marko Pfeifer it is clear that Hirscher still has what it takes to be at the forefront.

“It goes without saying that he hasn’t forgotten how to ski,” said Austria’s men’s head coach. “I also know that Marcel constantly trained his fitness, that he was constantly skiing. “It will of course be an issue of the starting number,” says the Carinthian. “But I will say that if Marcel gets into an area where he has the starting number again in the World Cup, then I also assume that he can be at the top again.”

Hirscher has to start at the bottom

Currently World Cup starts would not be possible for Hirscher due to the FIS rules. After five seasons as a ski retiree, whose FIS status was officially set to inactive and who achieved no results, he is starting almost from scratch again. The qualifying standards for World Cup races are evaluated before each season and then apply throughout the winter. Last year, only the first 150 of the FIS points list in the respective discipline had the right to start for men. In the last April list for the 2023/24 season, Hirscher is ranked 300th in slalom and 777th in giant slalom. As soon as the change of nation is actually officially completed and the Salzburger is considered active again, a Herculean task awaits him if he decides want to work forward.

Wants to go back to old glory days: Marcel Hirscher © APA/afp / JAVIER SORIANO

FIS races are particularly suitable for this, where young people usually gain racing experience. They abound throughout the season, in a variety of locations. The condition of the slopes is usually far from World Cup standards. It starts in the (European) summer in New Zealand and South America. In these races, Hirscher would have to write several times to get his World Cup license back. For major events, however, the criteria are less strict - that opens the door for the home World Cup in 2025 in Saalbach-Hinterglemm.

“If someone can do it, then Marcel is the only one you can trust,” said Felix Neureuther, who was also convinced that his long-time companion and friend can make a successful comeback. “When Marcel is at the start, he wants to deliver,” said the most successful German World Cup athlete. The Bavarian emphasized that he does not believe that Hirscher primarily has a marketing campaign in mind.

“When Marcel is at the start, he wants to deliver.” Felix Neureuther

Hirscher's company made a statement saying that he wanted to "combine his joy of racing with his professional task of testing and further developing equipment for his ski brand Van Deer-Red Bull Sports." The protagonists on Wednesday spoke noticeably often about the joy of racing - although Hirscher had stated several times after his retirement in 2019 that he had just lost interest in it. Hirscher's Van Deer colleague Anton Giger, on the other hand, emphasized that it was felt "that he had always thought about a comeback".

A tourism boost?

For Austrian winter tourism, a Hirscher media presence in the Netherlands would have the pleasant side effect of drumming up the advertising drum in an important home market. With 6,7 million overnight stays in the 2022/23 winter season, according to Statistics Austria, the Netherlands is number two in terms of foreign guests behind Germany and is already an important factor for domestic businesses. Guests from the country also stay longer than average in Austria during a winter holiday. Hirscher could further fuel the enthusiasm for skiing in the Netherlands.

By far the best World Cup placement of an “Oranje” starter to date was achieved by Marvin van Heek in 2012, who finished eighth in a shortened descent in Val Gardena. Among women, German-born Christa Kinshofer even came fifth twice in the 1980s.