Paris (AFP)
Marcel Hirscher, eight-time defending champion of the Alpine Skiing World Cup, is expected to announce the end of his career at the age of 30 next week, according to several Austrian media reports on Friday night.
The Austrian Ski Federation (ÖSV) announced on Friday afternoon a press conference scheduled for Wednesday night in Salzburg from 20:15 entitled "Retrospectives, overview and perspectives" with the Annaberg skier, live on television Austrian public ORF.
According to the Kronen Zeitung and Kurier, two of the leading Austrian newspapers, Hirscher, considered one of the best if not the best skier of all time, must announce the end of his career.
"The great Marcel Hirscher is moving towards retirement", so the Kronen on his website, with a two words "Thank you Marcel". Same story on the side of the Kurier with one of his website dedicated to the skier and the title: "Retirement: Marcel Hirscher stops".
At the age of 30, Hirscher won everything, starting with the overall World Cup standings eight times, which no one has achieved before him (Luxembourg's Marc Girardelli stopped at five, Austrian Annemarie Moser -Pröll to six).
To this, we must add two Olympic champion titles (slalom and alpine combined) in 2018 in Pyeongchang (South Korea), five world championship titles (three in slalom, one in alpine combined and one in giant slalom) and six small globes (World Cup specialty) slalom and as much in giant slalom.
In his career, he has won 67 World Cup races, failing a few units of the Swedish Ingemar Stenmark (86), the absolute reference for the moment.
He had maintained the suspense all summer on the continuation he was planning to give to his career, ensuring at the end of July that he had not made his decision. The press conference promised on 6 August was then postponed "for the end of the summer".
© 2019 AFP