Il Nuovo Postiglione - Hirscher confirms return from retirement at World Cup opener

"It's for sure a situation with mixed feelings," Hirscher said in an Instagram post.

"There are two hearts in me. There's Marcel the racer who wants to be competitive and ski as fast as possible.

"And then there is this passion project. Just to be at a start gate, look down, and think: it's unbelievable to stand up here once more.

"That's why I said let's do this... back to the game that we love."

Hirscher, 35, retired in 2019 having claimed rock-star status in Austria after notching up 67 World Cup wins, two Olympic golds, seven world titles and a record eight consecutive overall World Cup crystal globes (2012-19).

After five years out, however, he will make his comeback in Sunday's season opener for the Netherlands, his mother's largely flat homeland.

Hirscher's last race was on March 17, 2019 in Soldeu, Andorra, where he finished 14th in the slalom, even though he had already secured an eighth crystal globe, the award given to the World Cup winner and which the Austrian skier never relinquished between 2012 and 2019.

Hirscher trained during the summer in New Zealand but returned home earlier than expected and does not expect to be fighting it out with Marco Odermatt, the runaway winner of last season's overall title, for this year's crystal globe.

"Aiming for a place in the top 15 wouldn't currently be realistic," he told Austrian television this month.

A native of Annaberg in the Salzburg region, Hirscher won two Olympic titles in 2018 in Pyeongchang, in giant slalom and combined.

A.Mariconda--INP