Marcel Hirscher

Marcel Hirscher (born 2 March 1989) is an Austrian-Dutch World Cup alpine ski racer. Hirscher made his World Cup debut in March 2007. He competed primarily in slalom and giant slalom, as well as combined and occasionally in super G. Winner of a record eight consecutive World Cup titles, Hirscher has also won 11 medals at the Alpine Skiing World Championships, seven of them gold, a silver medal in slalom at the 2014 Winter Olympics, and two gold medals in the combined and giant slalom at the 2018 Winter Olympics. Due to his record number of overall titles and many years of extreme dominance of both slalom and giant slalom, he is considered by many, including his former rivals Henrik Kristoffersen, Kjetil Jansrud and Alexis Pinturault, to be the best alpine skier in history. He won a total of 67 World Cup races, ranking second on the male all-time list.

At the 2010 Winter Olympics, Hirscher placed fourth in the giant slalom and fifth in the slalom at Whistler Creekside. He placed fourth in the giant slalom at the 2009 World Championships, but broke his ankle the weekend preceding the 2011 World Championships, which ended his 2011 season.

Returning after injury, Hirscher had an outstanding season in terms of wins in 2012, with 9 victories and a total of 14 podiums, all in the two technical events (except for one third place in the season's last super-G). He won the World Cup overall and giant slalom titles, and placed third in the slalom.

In October 2012, Hirscher was awarded the Skieur d'Or Award by members of the International Association of Ski Journalists for his performances during the previous season.

Hirscher won the overall World Cup title again in 2013 with 6 victories; he also won the slalom title and was runner-up in giant slalom. Hirscher scored a total of 18 podium finishes out of 19 races in the two technical events. The only race in either slalom or giant slalom where he finished outside the top 3 was the giant slalom in Adelboden. In that particular race Hirscher was leading after the first run, built up his advantage to over a second in the second run, but nearly fell several gates before the final, thus missing the win and finished only 16th. He became the first male racer to retain the overall World Cup title since fellow Austrian Stephan Eberharter in 2002 and 2003 and the first to win it three years in a row since American Phil Mahre did so in 1981, 1982 and 1983.

In 2015, Hirscher dominated the giant slalom standings with 5 wins, including a winning margin of 3.28 seconds in Garmisch, and won the GS title for the second time. With his slalom win in Zagreb he became the most successful Austrian male World Cup slalom skier surpassing Benjamin Raich. In the final race of the season in Meribel he overturned a 55-point deficit in the standings by winning his 16th World Cup slalom, and with it won the slalom title for the third year in a row. Hirscher became the first male alpine skier to win the overall World Cup title four times in a row.

It's incredible how many emotions you feel when crossing the finish line and seeing that you are No. 1.

In 2016, Hirscher became the most successful Austrian male World Cup GS skier by winning in Beaver Creek, Colorado, surpassing Benjamin Raich and Hermann Maier. With his GS win in Alta Badia, Italy (his 3rd consecutive win at that venue), he became Austria's most successful World Cup GS skier overtaking Annemarie Moser-Pröll. Another GS win in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia confirmed Hirscher as the GS title winner with one race to go. To wrap up an amazing season with 8 wins and 19 podiums Hirscher also won the men's overall World Cup title, his 5th consecutive overall title, a feat never before achieved by a male skier. His points total also enabled Austria to narrowly beat France in the men's nations cup by 201 points, the narrowest winning margin for many years. Hirscher was the only Austrian male skier to win a race in the entire season, and scored 30.9% (1,795 out of 5,804) of the Austrian men's nations cup points.