Does Jungpapa Hirscher train less now?

Coach Michael Pircher found what he was looking for on the slopes and the seven-time world champion in downhill skiing, Marcel Hirscher, has gathered a lot of slalom training days on the slopes. glaciers. Friday afternoon is a short trip to Finland, where the first slalom race in Levi will take place on Sunday, as well as the first World Cup race of the winter season.

After the cancellation of the giant Sölden slalom, the preparation of the slalom skis has been modified. Dachstein, the Thurn Pbad, the Mölltal Glacier and now its "Stamm-Revier" Reiteralm are the Hirscher training stations. "This is not unusual for the season we are driving a bit, we have certainly trained very well on the local glaciers and now, the Reiteralm will always go, they will receive it on Friday," said Pircher at the 39th. APA – Austrian Press Agency.

The "total concentration" was used to "upgrade the slalom," said the long-time coach of the winner of the slalom discipline five times. Apart from last year, when it was practically impossible to train before Levi because of an injury to Hirscher's ankle, they achieved about the same number of training days than in previous years. In the winter of 2017/18, Hirscher won seven of the nine special rounds of the World Cup, finishing second in Kitzbühel and finishing the training at Levi 17.

Hirscher is open to change

The fact that Hirscher, after the birth of his son, gives him the opportunity to miss any of the races during the winter does not fundamentally change training, says Pircher. "We look from race to race, we focus on Beaver Creek after Levi, everything goes as usual, nothing has changed, there is no change from previous preparations or race calendars, but short-term changes may be open Marcel ".

One way to train on the training track at Levi had also appeared, but it had not been noticed because of bad weather. "Over the last two weeks, it was zero degrees, cloudy, foggy and wet, and there should be some looseness and sunshine on weekends.When clouds are over, temperatures drop, we get a hard enough track, that everything will be fine, "said Pircher optimistically.

Hirscher has already won twice north of the Arctic Circle. The reindeer that he won in 2013 called Ferdl, that of 2016 bears the name of Leo. "Marcel loves, as always, skiing, it's fun, it's fun at home, but skiing makes no difference, it's the same fire as usual "said Pircher.