Marcel Hirscher is back on skis after 8 months at indoor facilities: “When you do it without pain, it’s pure joy”

He stopped last January, announcing that he would not attempt a comeback during the season, thus also giving up the chance to compete in his fourth Olympics, his first under the Dutch flag, and has now put his skis back on after no fewer than 8 months.

Marcel Hirscher has revealed that in recent days he has returned to the snow, splitting his time between his “home” skidome, namely Snow World in Zoetermeer, in the heart of the Netherlands, which also hosted his comeback a year ago, nine months after the serious Reiteralm injury (when he tore the cruciate ligament in his left knee, on December 2, 2024, following his sensational return to the World Cup in the Sölden giant slalom and the Levi and Gurgl slaloms), and the German facility in Wittenburg.

And we will only find out with time whether we will see him again in the white circus, because once again MH89 has chosen not to commit himself, while waiting for the FIS to officially announce at the end of the month the rule concerning wildcards (which, if there are no hitches, will also be extended to the other disciplines), which would allow him to start, already at the opening race on the Rettenbach glacier next October 25, wearing bib no. 31. In this regard, Markus Waldner, the men’s circuit’s chief race director, sounded more than positive about the possibility of seeing Hirscher again in an interview with ORF in recent days.

“My first days of skiing in Zoetermeer and Wittenburg were different compared with a year ago,” said the eight-time Crystal Globe winner through Van Deer-Red Bull Sports’ channels this afternoon. “I needed time to fully recover from the knee injury and return to the level of physical fitness I had set for myself.

After eight months without skiing and the first sessions, it is obviously not yet possible to draw any definitive conclusions, but you start to sense how things are. And it was a positive feeling: when you feel no pain, skiing is pure joy. Before, I had to train; now, I am allowed to do it: that is the difference. For the time being, I want to maintain the same level of strength and endurance training and, as far as preparation on snow is concerned, we will rely on the training facilities available to us and make flexible short-term decisions about when and where to continue.

The last two seasons have taught us to focus on the process, not on the race calendar.”

With the arrival of Paula Moltzan, his Van Deer brand has also entered the women’s sector with a top athlete, and Marcel’s work as an entrepreneur intersects with his sporting career, although in the latter case, as mentioned, uncertainties still remain. “Balancing family life, running two companies and returning to competition after five years has been a learning process,” Hirscher added on the subject. “There was no one I could ask, ‘How did you do it?’ because the combination of circumstances is truly unique.

At the beginning, we were spread across five different locations; now everything is under the same roof (Van Deer-Red Bull Sports’ new headquarters in Scheffau am Tennengebirge, ed.) and I spend much less time in the car getting to meetings.”