The relevance of publications by the Nederlandse Ski Vereniging has been limited in the Alpine region in recent years. If surveys had been conducted on ski slopes in Austria, which is of course the most important of all winter sports countries (source: Austria), only a minority would probably have known about the existence of the ski association in a country whose highest elevation is 322 meters above sea level. Until this summer the attention at the Oranje ski center in Utrecht changed because the eight-time overall World Cup winner and one of the most successful skiers in the history of winter sports was planning his comeback.
The Dutch (and the Austrians) still haven’t fully understood that Marcel Hirscher wants to return to the World Cup slopes for another country in the upcoming season. This is made possible by the citizenship of his mother Sylvia, who once met father Ferdinand on a skiing holiday. As with the Hirschers, this comeback story could ideally bring people together and perhaps even reduce the eternal antipathy between Orange ski tourists and Austro ski resort deer in huts and gondola lifts. But this new connection between Hirscher and Holland is still causing a lot of confusion.
The new World Cup season is again full of high-class races. Whether slalom, downhill, super-G or giant slalom: all the dates for the ski mountaineering races.
The central debate of the past few weeks, whether or not the 35-year-old will compete in the first giant slalom of the winter in Sölden next Sunday, was brought to an end by his new ski association on Tuesday afternoon. In its newsletter, the NSV nonchalantly announced the “historic day” on which Hirscher would make his comeback and wished him “all the best.” However, the usually well-informed media in Austria had no information about such a final decision. On Monday, Hirscher said in an interview with the Servus-TV channel that his involvement in Sölden was still completely open. The tabloid Kronewhich also sponsors the Austrian Ski Association, even insultedly reported in an article that recently no one was answering the phone at the ski association in Utrecht.
In any case, the true story soon became clear: Hirscher has been on the list for the World Cup opener for weeks, which is more like a non-binding registration. He doesn’t have to take part; according to SZ information, the decision wasn’t made on Wednesday either. The 67-time World Cup winner has been spotted training in Sölden over the past few days, but he has also been ill in the past few weeks. The perfectionist Hirscher is reluctant to make a comeback without ideal preparation, even though he and his team are aware that Sölden would be the ideal place to ensure maximum attention – skiing, of course, and not through false announcements.
The Dutch Ski Association has also learned that hasty broadcasts since this winter can be a threat to national peace in two countries. The post was immediately corrected. “If everything goes well,” Marcel Hirscher will make his debut for the Netherlands on Sunday, the website now says. But it is obviously worth keeping an eye on Utrecht, where white smoke would eventually rise in the event of an early comeback: “We keep our fingers crossed,” wrote the ski association, “… and will keep you updated.”
