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But at just 30, Hirscher was able to hang up his race skis with the all-time record for World Cup victories within reach.
Hirscher and his wife Laura had their first child – a boy – last year, and priorities changed.
"Ski races are no longer the most important thing," Hirscher told Christina Macfarlane of CNN for Alpine Edge at the World Cup final in Soldeu, Andorra.
Nevertheless, Hirscher has a hard time turning his back on a life that has given him so much.
"This is perhaps the most difficult decision of my life because I'm not saying," OK, I'm going to change jobs, "I'm going to end a part of my life that has been today, my life .
"If you have been doing this for 10 years with this intensity, with tears, sweat, success and suffering, with all the ups and downs." It's not easy to say I'm done with that. "
"The others do not sleep"
Hirscher is third on the list of top ski racers, with 67 wins, just 15 ahead of Lindsey Vonn and 19 behind record holder Ingemar Stenmark.
With an average of eight victories per year over the last eight years, he could outperform Stenmark and consolidate his legacy as a GOAT in a few seasons. It is if American superstar Mikaela Shiffrin, who has already thundered up to 60 victories in the World Cup, does not surpbad it in the meantime.
But it's been at least two years more than pursuing the incessant goals of an elite athlete, trying to stay ahead of the pack.
"The biggest challenge is to improve from year to year," said Hirscher. "The others do not sleep."
Rigidity, travel and the familiar pace of the ski circuit are another factors that weigh heavily on the spirit of Hirscher.
"Knowing that on December 25, I'm going to land in Denver, five steps, turn left and there's the parked car and go to Vail for four or five workouts, dine at the same restaurant," says he, evoking his routine.
"I'm used to these rituals during the season and sometimes it's frustrating and not always motivating, knowing what I'm going to do."
"The most difficult situation"
Speaking to Soldeu, Hirscher admitted that he was happy that the season was over, but he added that it was not the right time to make a final decision about his future.
"Today is the wrong day for this issue," he said. "At the moment, I'm not motivated, but that can change in one or two weeks.
"At the moment, I feel brilliant, my body, my mental side, we have so much experience, we are all getting better and better, the team grows bigger and bigger together, we are only not at the top, it's really the most difficult situation up to now in my career.
"I do not want to stop the ski competition by saying that I'm no longer in the top 15 and now I have to stop, I want to stop because I made the decision not to have fun or be tired of ski races. "
"Small dreams, live big"
Growing up in the small town of Annaberg, in eastern Austria, Hirscher did not exactly see himself on the fast track to greatness. When he joined the World Cup circuit at age 18, a single win would have represented a career success.
"Where I grew up, no one had done it before," he said. "It would be something you could be proud of and maybe a medal at a world championship." Wow.
"I never dreamed too big, I hate to dream really big and at the end of your career, we just reach 1% of big dreams.This is not fun.Better to make small dreams and the live great. "
Hirscher has lived on a large scale and for many, he is already the best of all time.
Whether he is retiring or pursuing the all-time record, it will be on his terms – and now for his wife and son.
"It's more important that he does a good job and that everything there is with the family is good, then comes the ski racing," he said.
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