Hirscher, who starts for the Netherlands, is stopped by an injury. It is unclear whether the 35-year-old’s professional career is definitely over.
His comeback was short-lived: Austrian ski racer Marcel Hirscher had to end the season due to injury.
Kimmo Brandt / EPA
It was a great stage, Marcel Hirscher’s comeback. Before the start of the season in Sölden at the end of October, the ski scene was wondering whether the eight-time overall World Cup winner would actually compete – five years after retiring in 2019. Hirscher, 35 years old, was watched by the skiers at every turn accompanied by the media. The comeback electrified the ski world. He finally started and finished a modest 23rd in the giant slalom on the Rettenbach Glacier. He drove for the Netherlands, his mother’s home country. He achieved his greatest successes, including seven World Cup titles and two Olympic victories, in the Austrian uniform.
The mixed start to the season was followed by two messed up slaloms for the former dominator of this discipline: Hirscher missed the second run in Levi and was eliminated early in Gurgl. He probably felt that technology and materials had developed further during his absence. And: that he is already 35 years old and his body is no longer at the same level as before. “It’s no fun like that, I feel out of place, I’ve rarely been so out of place in my life,” said Hirscher two weeks ago.
On Tuesday morning it was announced that his comeback season was already over. Not because Hirscher is no longer interested or doesn’t feel competitive in sport. He tore his cruciate ligament during training. In a statement from the ski brand Vandeer, which Hirscher co-founded, he wrote: “Cruciate ligament gone, project over.”
“Maybe I’m finally done with my journey”
Hirscher posted a video on Instagram that shows him during a training run on the Reiteralm on Monday. After a few swings, Hirscher slips and receives a blow to the knee in a compression. Although he stays on his feet, he immediately grabs his left knee. Then a cry of pain. The doctors operated on him in the Graz hospital that same evening.
Hirscher actually wanted to return to the World Cup in Val-d’Isère in mid-December. The declared long-term goal was the World Championships in February in Saalbach-Hinterglemm. These plans are now a waste of time. The torn cruciate ligament is Hirscher’s first serious injury since he first competed in the World Cup on Lenzerheide 17 years ago.
He leaves it open whether and how things will continue for Hirscher as a racing driver. It doesn’t seem realistic that he will endure the rigors of a second comeback. Hirscher is likely to ask himself the question of meaning, after all, he has won everything in skiing: he is the record winner in the overall World Cup, he has won 67 World Cup races in his career – that is second place behind Ingemar Stenmark in the all-time best list. In his team’s message he writes: “Maybe I’m finally finished with my trip.”
The injury is a “hard cut” for him and it will be bitter for him to watch ski races this season. The last eight months in which he worked towards his comeback were hard. “But they were also a lot of fun,” writes Hirscher. And: “Last race of the season. What remains is the love of skiing.”
