Olympic skiing champion Marcel Hirscher retires
VIENNA (AP) — Two-time Olympic champion Marcel Hirscher, the first Alpine skier to win eight overall World Cup titles, is retiring after 12 seasons.
Hirscher, who won Olympic gold in giant slalom and Alpine combined in Pyeongchang in 2018, announced his decision live on national TV in Austria on Wednesday.
The 30-year-old Austrian says “my decision is two weeks old. I think it is good the way it is. This feels right.”
Hirscher’s retirement is no surprise.
At last season’s World Cup Finals in March, he openly questioned his own motivation to chase more titles, after expressing similar doubts a year ago.
After marrying long-term girlfriend Laura Moisl and becoming a father in the offseason in 2018, he said “blue and red are not the most important things in life,” referring to the colors of the gates in a slalom race.
Hirscher dominated the sport for a decade, breaking records along the way. No other male skier has won more than five overall titles.
Hirscher rarely competed in super-G and didn’t race a single downhill in his World Cup career, but excelled in slalom and GS and won a total of 12 season titles in the technical disciplines.
Hirscher won 67 of his 245 World Cup races, trailing only Ingemar Stenmark (86) and Lindsey Vonn (82) on the all-time list.
He also won 14 medals at major championships, including nine golds.
