Ski star Marcel Hirscher has to forego his comeback in Sölden. Alexander Schmid, 2023 world champion in the parallel race, is planning to take part in the Alpine season opener ten months after his cruciate ligament tear.
Hirscher, a former Austrian series winner in the overall World Cup who now competes for the Netherlands, actually wanted to return to the giant slalom on Sunday (10 a.m. and 1 p.m./ZDF) after tearing his cruciate ligament in December 2024.
Because he was recently ill for two weeks, the 36-year-old is missing out on Sölden. Patrick Riml from Hirscher’s sponsor announced this on the channel “ServusTV”.
The rehab after the serious injury went well, Riml reported. Hirscher – eight-time overall World Cup winner, two-time Olympic champion and seven-time world champion – made his first comeback in autumn 2024 after a five-year break. A few weeks later, however, he tore his cruciate ligament in training and was out for the rest of the winter.
Schmid wants to decide on the start “in the short term”.
The 31-year-old Alexander Schmid is part of the ten-man squad of the German Ski Association (DSV) for the start of the World Cup.
He wants to know whether the parallel world champion of 2023 will actually compete on the Rettenbachferner “short term” decide. Schmid said he received the green light for the race after the so-called “back-to-competition test” a week and a half ago. Now he wants to “See if I feel fit and ready to start in Sölden”said the Allgäu native.
Rehab took longer
Schmid tore his cruciate ligament again last December. Unlike the first time at the beginning of March 2023, both menisci were affected. That’s why I have rehab “a little longer” lasted, he said: “I took the time, especially at the beginning I stayed more patient.”
It stood in the summer “Skiing in the snow again for the first time, and it filled up really well.” He has been training on the glacier since the end of September.