With no fewer than two gold medals, seven world titles, eight World Cup final victories and 67 victories in the World Cup circuit, Hirscher can rightly be called one of the greatest skiers of all time. Although he has retired since 2019, the now 35-year-old alpine skier announced this week that he will make a comeback. And not under the Austrian flag, but under the Dutch flag.
The slalom specialist has a Dutch mother and therefore also has Dutch nationality. She started a relationship with Marcel’s father: the Austrian ski instructor Ferdinand Hirscher.
Ski lessons in the ‘Gooische Alps’
And Ferdinand Hirscher ended up at Wolfskamer Wintersport in Huizen in the 1980s, where he became a ski instructor. The now 82-year-old Toni Heidegger and 76-year-old Nelu Juncu are ski instructors at the club and worked with Ferdinand. In fact, it was Juncu who hired Hirscher at the club at the time. “At that time he was interested in working on an artificial ski slope in the Netherlands. That was unknown to him and a lot of Austrian ski organizations. I was immediately impressed.”
At the club they saw how the skills of the father were transferred to the son. “The trainers immediately said: ‘That will be a great match!’ In the end he also became a top player,” says Heidegger enthusiastically. “You could see it in his movements, how he stands on the bars, the effort, the will, the ability, the doing! He showed that so perfectly in his youth.”
Watch the comeback
Hirscher’s return is well timed. Next year the World Cup is scheduled to take place in Saalbach, Austria, close to the skier’s home. The Winter Olympics will also be held in Italy in 2026. Naturally, the club hopes that he will do well. “It could be a big surprise given his talent,” Juncu said. “I would give it to him wholeheartedly,” Heidegger adds.
The hope is also that the comeback of the skiing great will give a boost to Dutch skiing and thus also to Wolfskamer Wintersport. But the club also hopes that Hirscher himself will visit Huizen to take a ride on the art track. “If he really plays for the Netherlands, it is quite logical that he visits us. After all, his father worked here,” says Heidegger.
And once Hirscher is in the starting block for his comeback to the competition stage, there is no doubt that the entire ski club will be watching in the clubhouse.
