Marcel Hirscher returns to the World Cup in Sölden

The World Cup season hasn’t even started yet, but the crystal ball can already be awarded in one discipline. The discipline did not exist before, but now it must be created, there is no doubt about it. You could call it a “comeback production”.

And the winner is: Marcel Hirscher, Austria, or: Netherlands.

The 35-year-old recently kept the ski circuit in suspense for days. The first races of the new season will take place in Sölden this weekend, high up on the Rettenbach glacier. And soon everything in Sölden revolved around just one question: Will Hirscher, the long-time dominator who announced his comeback in the spring, take part in the men’s giant slalom on Sunday?

Only when he was ready, Hirscher said at the beginning of the week. Yes, the Dutch Ski Association said in the middle of the week – only to back down a little later. Finally, Hirscher’s environment announced a decision for Friday. All eyes on Hirscher, all the headlines too, for hours or days to come.

He has won the overall World Cup eight times

What other crucial things the Austrian learned about his form and material coordination in the last few days is not known. But then, on Friday afternoon, around 4 p.m., his ski company posted a short video on social media. Hirscher races through the giant slalom gates and at the end he says: “I liked it” and also: “Back to the game we love”.

When Hirscher announced in April that he would return to the Ski World Cup for his mother’s country, the Netherlands, there was great excitement. There had never been an athlete like the Austrian on the World Cup slopes before him. He won the overall World Cup more often than any other skier, eight times in total, and that in a row. There are also two Olympic victories and seven world championship titles.

Hirscher achieved all of this because he was completely dedicated to skiing and was a perfectionist the likes of which his sport had never seen before. When he resigned in September 2019, aged just 30, he also explained that the summers had become too short to recover from the strains of the winter. Hirscher said it was like an old cell phone: the battery no longer charges as quickly.

In the years that followed, Hirscher could be seen doing things that were good for his battery. He rode around on his motorcycle, hiked, biked, and, yes, of course: went skiing. And on these skis he got closer to the World Cup step by step.

In September 2021, Hirscher will introduce his own ski brand, Van Deer. He predicts that this ski will win World Cup races. Later convinced the Norwegian Henrik Kristoffersen to change. Wins the Austrian effervescent company Red Bull as a partner for his ski brand.

And finally announces the most spectacular – and probably most advertising effective – comeback in the history of skiing, his own. Although: Hirscher doesn’t like that word, he made that clear in July when he gave a press conference in the Netherlands about his plans. “The C-word,” the Austrian said at the time, suggests that you continue where you left off. And he doesn’t want that.

Hirscher said he no longer wanted to chase hundredths, but instead wanted to collect memories; just as he had spoken of joy and passion in April; as he said on Servus-TV, the Red Bull house channel, that he only drives when he is ready. And if not, then not.

The story is good for the ski circus

“Having this freedom is just something cool,” said Hirscher, and he actually uses the word “cool” a lot. Like: Van Deer. And Red Bull. But how free can someone like him actually be, a skier for whom only victories used to count and nothing else, nothing at all? Who already indicated at the time how much it was all draining him, but who couldn’t get out of his skin? And why does someone who just wants to be there for fun think about it for so long until he can decide whether he wants to start in Sölden or not?

Whatever the case: the comeback of the record skier is just right for the ski circus. He can use this story well, it provides something to talk about that doesn’t revolve around melting World Cup slopes or injured stars. This time the returnees are absorbing all the spotlight.

Marcel Hirscher, the Austrian who now starts for the Netherlands, his mother’s country. Lucas Braathen, the lively Norwegian under the Brazilian flag. And maybe Lindsey Vonn, the 40-year-old American, will soon be there again, despite having an artificial knee joint.

When Hirscher pushes himself out of the starting gate on Sunday, he will do so with start number 31; he has a wild card to thank for this, with which the World Ski Federation FIS makes his way back easier. This caused some dissatisfaction among his competitors, but everyone actually agrees: it’s good for skiing that Hirscher is back. It soon becomes clear how good Hirscher still is. And whether he really is four seconds short of the top 15 in the world, as he recently said.