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Skiing standout Marcel Hirscher eyes the Olympic season in return from injury and retirement

Skiing standout Marcel Hirscher eyes the Olympic season in return from injury and retirement

Skiing standout Marcel Hirscher will have a chance to race in the upcoming Milan-Cortina Olympics after recovering from injury and receiving clearance to compete in the next World Cup season under the new wild card rule.
The record eight-time overall World Cup champion had
his return last season
from five years of retirement cut short when he was injured in December with a torn ACL in his left knee after a fall in training.
'Rehab was going on quite well and now we are back in athletic training. This is super fun, being back a professional athlete again,'
Hirscher said on Instagram
on Wednesday.
'FIS (the International Ski and Snowboard Federation) made a decision that I am allowed to take my 17 starts from last year's season into the upcoming season. So that means I'm ready for another season ski racing. And I think now you can call it a comeback,' Hirscher added.
While the 36-year-old Hirscher competed for Austria in his earlier career, he came back representing the Netherlands. He has an Austrian father and a Dutch mother. That means that if he decides to compete in the Olympics next year, he won't have to qualify for one of the four starting spots that the powerful Austrian team has for each race. Whereas the Netherlands doesn't have any other skiers of Hirscher's caliber.
The wild card rule allows former champions to return to the World Cup without the necessary qualifying points.
Lindsey Vonn
also returned under the wild card rule last season with
a new titanium knee
and plans on competing in the Feb. 6-22 Olympics.
Hirscher only completed one of his three races last season, placing 23rd in the
giant slalom
at Sölden, Austria.
After the injury and ensuing surgery, Hirscher completed 1,000 hours of rehab.
'In the end, two questions remained: What do I want from life? What does life want from me?' Hirscher said. 'Even in difficult moments, my answer never changed: I want to race again.'
Hirscher plans to return to snow training in September.
'At the moment, I'm shifting from the rehabilitation phase into full athlete mode, with more extensive sessions and higher intensity,' Hirscher said. 'Training hard again is bringing me a lot of joy. It's shaping up to be a very athletic summer.'
Hirscher's 67 World Cup wins put him second on the all-time men's list behind only Ingemar Stenmark's 86 victories. He also won two Olympic golds, in combined and giant slalom at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games; plus a silver in slalom at the 2014 Sochi Games.
The World Cup seasons opens in Sölden in October.
Men's skiing at the Milan-Cortina Games will be held in Bormio, while the women's events will be held in Cortina d'Ampezzo.
___
AP skiing:
https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing
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McIntosh goes for 5 individual golds at world championships with Los Angeles Olympics in sight
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McIntosh goes for 5 individual golds at world championships with Los Angeles Olympics in sight
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McIntosh goes for 5 individual golds at world championships with Los Angeles Olympics in sight
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Summer McIntosh won three individual gold medals a year ago at the Olympics, the star in the Paris pool alongside France's Léon Marchand. Apparently unsatisfied with three, she'll go for five gold medals starting Sunday at the world swimming championships in Singapore. Call it a trial run for the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028. The worlds is the highest profile swim meet since last year's Olympics, a showcase for newcomers as well veterans who hope to stick around until Los Angeles. McIntosh will be very busy during the eight days in the pool, packing her schedule with five individual events. She'll contend with prelims in some events, and she'll also add relays. 'This means 14 or 15 races she could swim in eight days, demanding races,' Canada's head coach Iain McDonald told The Associated Press. 'It's a very challenging schedule she's set for herself.' The 18-year-old Canadian set three world records in five days in June at the national trials. She broke her own 400-meter individual medley mark, dropping it to 4 minutes, 23.65 seconds, and set the 200 IM record (2:05.70) and the 400 freestyle record (3:54.18). She was also a mere half-second behind the 200 butterfly record, which has stood since 2009, and just off the 800 freestyle record set last month by American Katie Ledecky. 'She's such a versatile athlete, it's kind of tough to nail what her best events are,' McDonald said. 'She's pretty good right across the spectrum.' Opening day McIntosh will be the focus on Day 1 of the pool events in Singapore. She swims the 400 freestyle final, and comes back about 30 minutes later for a semifinal of the 200 IM. Despite holding the world record in the 400 free, she's never won gold in the event at the Olympics or worlds. This time she's ready, and credits coach Fred Vergnoux. 'I'm super pumped for the 400 freestyle and I'm really excited to see how I manage doing the double,' McIntosh told Canadian broadcaster the CBC. McIntosh said Vergnoux has boosted her endurance, pointing more to distance events. 'It's true that I haven't been able to do it on world stage yet,' she said of the 400. 'I think going into past big meets I haven't had the confidence in my training and my freestyle in general — technique-wise and endurance-wise — that I have now.' Ariarne Titmus was the gold medalist in Paris with silver for McIntosh, but the Australian swimmer is taking a year off. It's Titmus's record that McIntosh just broke. Ledecky, the bronze medalist in Paris, appears to be McIntosh's chief rival. McIntosh will also face Ledecky in the 800, which might be the only race where McIntosh is not favored. It's probably 50-50, and it might be the biggest race of the championships. Ledecky set the world record this year of 8:04.12, and McIntosh is right behind, having clocked 8:05.07. 'I think she loves it (the challenge),' Greg Meehan, the U.S. team director, said of Ledecky. 'There are always threats coming at you because you've set yourself to be the gold standard.' McIntosh dominates the two IM races, and should also be a favorite in the 200 butterfly. Ledecky's best race is the 1,500 where she holds the world record and also has the 23 top times in history in the event — and No. 25, too. McIntosh is not in the field here. McIntosh, who will swim this fall under Bob Bowman at the University of Texas at Austin, arrived on the scene aged 14 at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, finishing fourth in the 400 free. 'She's been such a strong performer through her entire career at such a young age,' McDonald said. 'But she always manages to surprise you, upping her game a little bit.' Attention on Yu Some of the attention in Singapore will be on 12-year-old Chinese swimmer Yu Zidi . Yu has qualified in the 200 and 400 IMs and the 200 butterfly and could face McIntosh in all three finals. Unbelievably, she could win a medal — at 12. Yu's time of 2:10.63 in the Chinese championships in May was the fastest by any 12 year old — female or male — in history. She's also swum 2:06.83 in the 200 fly and 4:35.53 in the 400 IM. Both of those times would have been good for fourth place in last year's Olympics. Astoundingly, Yu is 12 to 15 seconds faster than McIntosh was at age 12, depending on the event. That's roughly a half-lap of a 50-meter pool. 'There is always somebody coming up next,' McDonald said. ___ AP sports:

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