"Not good for me"

A tame Marcel Hirscher? The ski world has its doubts

Marco Odermatt (left) does not believe in a "tame" Marcel Hirscher.(Bild: GEPA)

Marcel Hirscher stooped very low at his press conference in Holland - his rivals are smiling about it.

Marcel Hirscher is back - and a record is falling! On Wednesday, the neo-Dutchman set the record for the deepest ski press conference in history. The Zoetermeer ski hall near The Hague is four meters below sea level.

Marcel's expectations for his comeback were not much higher. "I haven't skied a single race turn yet," said the 35-year-old tamely, "the skier who left in 2019 no longer exists."

"Good for skiing, but not good for me"
The ski world doubts. The eight-time overall World Cup winner has never left anything to chance in his career. And always aimed for the top. Swiss superstar Marc Odermatt also thinks: "Marcel's return is good for skiing, but not good for me. When I beat him, everyone thinks: normal. When he beats me, I don't look good."

FIS summer race
Marcel brushes such arguments aside: "Five years off! I'm no longer who I was." The world rankings underline this sentence: in New Zealand, Hirscher is back in the giant slalom as number 693 and 300 in the slalom. He will probably need (two) victories in the FIS summer races on the other side of the globe. Marcel nods: "I don't know if I'll ever be in a position to win a World Cup race again." Which elicits no more than a tired smile from the competition.

Hirscher will treat giant slalom and slalom equally. In Zoetermeer, however, he briefly flashed the "real" Marcel when he said: "My chances are better in the slalom - there's no Odermatt!"