Alpine Skiingthe end of an era
The long-awaited announcement arrived on live TV: the king of the white circus salutes at just 30 years.
Wednesday 4 September 2019 13 minutes reading time
Marcel Hirscher has decided to say stop with competitive skiing and the competition that has literally dominated him, signing an unparalleled record like that of winning eight consecutive general World Cups, and giving a show in 12 years of career at high levels .
At the Gusswerk congress center in Salzburg, an era for the white circus was over, with the clear and sharp words of the Salzburg star, pronounced a few minutes ago: “I withdraw, happy with everything I have done and lived in these years "Said Marcel.
At the end of the conference, we will publish and analyze all of Hirscher's statements.
A RECORD CAREER
A native of Annaberg-Lungotz, a place of 2,000 souls in the heart of the Salzburg land where he has always lived, until he married his Laura in the summer of 2018, Marcel Hirscher puts his skis on for the first time at the age of 2 years and 9 months, driven by the passion of his father Ferdinand, who runs the ski school in the country, and by his mother Sylvia (of Dutch origin).
At a junior level, you can already imagine an enormous talent, so much so that in the Flachau 2017 World Championships, the then 18-year-old won the silver in slalom and the title in giant, acquiring the right to participate in the competition between the wide doors in the Lenzerheide finals, finishing 24th in his first World Cup appearance. It was March 17th 2007.
The 2007/08 season is alternated between the European Cup calendar, of which Marcel conquers the final classification, and the true approach to the maximum circuit; on 9 December 2017, in the Bad Kleinkirchheim slalom, here are the first points with the 24th place finish, while the top 10 arrives already in January, with the 9th place in the Adelboden slalom. After the double world junior gold in the two technical specialties that will characterize his career, Hirscher climbs for the first time on a CDM podium on March 9th 2008, with 3rd place in the Kranjska Gora slalom, repeating himself a few days later, on the same step, in the Bormio final race.
The next vintage is now permanently among the big names and, after having conquered another podium in a specialty like the super combined, in December in Val d''Isere, still in the Haute Savoie area, it will touch a couple of months later his first medal in a senior World Cup, closing the giant slalom in 4th place (only 7 cents from Ligety's bronze).
It is only a matter of time for the first success, which arrives regularly on December 13, 2009, as always on the Face de Bellevarde in Val d''Isere, dominating one of the most difficult giants of the circuit in front of two giants of the period like Max Blardone and Benny Raich. It is the Olympic season and in Vancouver comes a Hirscher, still in his twenties, ready "only" to finish 4th in the giant and 5th slalom. Meanwhile, comes the second success in the Cup, in the giant of Kranjska Gora, while the first triumph in slalom will come a year after the first pearl, as the Salzburg is still imposing in Val d''Isere on 12 December 2010.
Constantly there in front, Marcel has to stop just before the 2011 Garmisch World Championships, causing a broken foot in a fall in the Hinterstoder giant. His year ends prematurely, but all this serves to recharge to start strong in the season that marks the turning point: the 2011/12 vintage, in fact, sees Annaberg's ace win nine Cup successes and, above all, the first of the eight consecutive general World Cups, winning a sportingly dramatic duel in the Schladming finals, against a superlative Beat Feuz between fast and combined races.
It is also the year of the controversy over the forked / not forked, in particular on the day of Kitzbuehel when Marcel continues until the arrival and is then disqualified, referring to Schladming two days later with all the pressure of the world on him; this is the turning point of his career, because Hirscher matures from every point of view and, taking himself a year later, again on the Planai, the first individual world title of the career with the world slalom that stopped a whole nation, enters definitively into history.
To think that, after the second World Cup that came at the end of that 2012/13 vintage, he would have conquered another six crystal balls, it was really impossible. The rest of the story is remembered by all the fans, from the disappointment for the silver in slalom to the Olympic Games in Sochi, to the duels with Kristoffersen to take home the fifth cup in the 2015/16 vintage, passing by the doublets of world gold medals between Beaver Creek 2015 and Sankt Moritz 2017, and the "five-circle curse" broken in PyeongChang, with the one-two of Olympic titles between combined and giant, in the year of the summer fracture of the ankle and which will result in the end the most incredible of all, given that Marcel always wins, in any condition, equaling the Stenmark record of 13 Cup successes in a single season.
In the course of the 2018/19 vintage, after another impressive series until January, we talk about the possibility of reaching even the 86 victories in single races of the formidable Swedish, but to the king of modern skiing does not seem to interest more than so much, still aiming for the conquest of its eighth and last World Cup, to which it combines (besides "obviously" with the cups of giant and slalom specialties) also the world silver in giant in Are, with triumph 48 hours later in the slalom in Sweden which will, in fact, be his last career success, last February 17th. The last podium? On 10 March 2019, with the same placement (3rd), in the same place and in the same specialty as the first obtained 11 years earlier, in the Kranjska Gora slalom.
Hirscher will be remembered for the records, but also for the miraculous rescues and circus numbers (think a little about what he combined between Campiglio and Adelboden in the 2017/18 season), the power combined with an excellent technique, the continuous search for perfection and a head out of the ordinary, as his direct rivals have always confided.
In the first phase of his career he was perhaps not the most beloved champion, but it is also true that in recent years, with impeccable behavior on and off the track, many skeptics have begun to appreciate him, not only as an indisputable champion. The greatest ever? It is a question that often arises, but we go further. For the high level continuity in a sport like skiing, Marcel Hirscher enters by right among the greatest sportsmen in history, as it was in his time and in an absolute sense Ingemar Stenmark, with whom he was often compared.
In 12 full seasons in the circuit, the Austrian king has won 8 general and consecutive World Cups (and this is the record that will remain engraved for decades), 6 World Cups of specialty in giant and as many in slalom, 7 world titles (5 individual and 2 teams) with 4 silvers, 2 Olympic golds (and one silver), getting 67 successes in the Cup, for a total of 138 podiums in 245 races.
THE PALMARES OF HIRSCHER
8 general World Cups (consecutive from 2012 to 2019)
6 Giant World Cups (2012-15-16-17-18-19)
6 slalom World Cups (2013-14-15-17-18-19)
7 gold medals (Slalom and Team Event Schladming ''13, Combined and Event Team Beaver Creek' '15, Gigante and Slalom Sankt Moritz' '17, Slalom Are ''19)
4 world silver (Gigante Schladming ''13, Gigante Beaver Creek' '15, Combined Sankt Moritz' '17, Gigante Are ''19)
2 Olympic golds (Combined and Giant PyeongChang ''18)
1 Olympic silver (Slalom Sochi '' 14)
67 World Cup victories (32 Slaloms, 31 Giants, 3 Parallels, 1 Super-G)
138 podiums (47 second places, 24 third places) in 245 races
#MARCELHIRSCHER
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Social media engagement
SCARPONI, SCELTI DAI LETTORI
MAXISPORT
HEAD - raptor 60 bambino
102 €
3k