Marcel Hirscher chases Lindsey Vonn World Cup win mark

CNN/Stylemagazine.com Newswire | 12/18/2018, 10:05 a.m.
He's already one of the greatest sportsmen of his generation, but Marcel Hirscher shows no sign of letting up as …
He's already one of the greatest sportsmen of his generation, but Austria's Marcel Hirscher showed no sign of letting up as he raced to a 61st World Cup victory Sunday.

(CNN) -- He's already one of the greatest sportsmen of his generation, but Marcel Hirscher shows no sign of letting up as he chases the record of all-time World Cup wins.

The Austrian raced to his 62nd World Cup victory in a parallel giant slalom in Alta Badia, Italy, Monday, a day after scoring a giant slalom win at the same venue.

The 29-year-old has now won four times this season as he looks to extend his record to eight consecutive World Cup overall crowns.

Hirscher has climbed into a tie for third in the list of most successful skiers on the World Cup circuit, alongside countrywoman Annemarie Moser-Proell and 20 wins behind Lindsey Vonn, who is retiring after the Lake Louise event in 2019.

The record holder is Sweden's Ingemar Stenmark with 86 victories.

Hirscher beat France's Thibaut Favrot in the final under lights Monday night for his first ever parallel giant slalom victory.

The discipline pits skiers head-to-head against each other on parallel courses in a knockout format.

In Sunday's giant slalom, Hirscher led comfortably after the first run and extended his advantage in the second to beat Frenchmen Thomas Fanara and Alexis Pinturault by more than two-and-a-half seconds to add to a slalom win in Levi, Finland and GS in Val d'Isere.

"My run was definitely on the limit," Hirscher told reporters. "There were some parts that were really close to not finishing. But that's the funny thing that's coming back over the years, this 100 per cent will to win. Wow, that was on the edge."

Hirscher, a double Olympic champion from PyeongChang 2018, is also bidding to defend his world titles in slalom and giant slalom at February's World Championships in Are, Sweden.

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