Eight-time overall World Cup winner Marcel Hirscher is returning to the World Cup ski slopes. Can he challenge the Swiss dominator Marco Odermatt? "No", says ski expert Marco Büchel.
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- Marcel Hirscher returns to the World Cup in Sölden after a five-year absence.
- The Austrian has won the overall World Cup eight times in a row from 2012 to 2019.
- However, expert Marco Büchel explains that Hirscher will find it difficult to make it back to the top of the world in his comeback season.
"I don't think Marcel Hirscher will make it back to the top of the world this season," says ski expert Marco Büchel in an interview with blue Sport ahead of the start of the season. The Liechtenstein native, who has four World Cup victories to his name, explains: "I think he would have to take two years to make his comeback."
Büchel lists three reasons why it will be difficult for Hirscher to race for podium places again:
1. "The material set-up doesn't quite fit yet. He has his own ski company, he has a collaboration with a boot company, but getting the whole package right isn't that easy. I watched him recently and it looks very good - for a pensioner. But not good enough to compete with Odermatt."
2. "Hirscher has a training backlog. He has been training for the last five years, but not at the same level as Odermatt or Meillard, only sporadically. He still has some catching up to do. He can provide 90 percent of his form, but the last 10 percent are the most difficult."
3. "The skiing style has changed a little, Hirscher is still skiing in the same style as five years ago. It will be difficult this winter."
We'll find out how Hirscher actually performs on his comeback today when the Austrian takes to the slopes in Sölden with bib number 34.
