As a forerunner

Skiing hero Mayer plans to start at the home World Championships

Matthias Mayer

(Bild: Christof Birbaumer)

Is it the next sensational comeback? Three-time Olympic champion Matthias Mayer is apparently planning to compete as a forerunner at his home World Championships in Saalbach at the beginning of February. 

Marcel Hirscher has led the way, Lindsey Vonn has followed suit - and now Mayer is apparently also planning to return to the race track. "I want to compete as a forerunner at the 2025 World Ski Championships in Saalbach. I'm already training for that. And I'm looking forward to it," the 34-year-old from Carinthia told the Kleine Zeitung newspaper. "I've never stopped training, I've intensified my training. And I want to train more for super-G in January."

(Bild: GEPA pictures)

However, Mayer is not aiming for a comeback as a World Cup racer like Hirscher or Vonn. "That's a big decision. It's not enough to simply strap on your skis and you're a winning skier again." Rather, it's a hard, rocky road. However, he has never ruled out or agreed to a comeback. His Saalbach project should be a test, says the 34-year-old. "As a forerunner, I'm more of a 'pleasure skier' who likes to ski down somewhere fast. I have no competition, my opponent is the mountain."

New task
Mayer won Olympic gold in the downhill in 2014 and in the super-G in 2018 and 2022. He withdrew completely unexpectedly during the 2022 Bormio races. In the previous season, he had worked as a consultant for the ÖSV speed team before he attracted so much attention at an event in Kitzbühel in January 2024 that a police operation became necessary. The federation then published a statement about his health problems. Last week, Mayer was in Val Gardena/Gröden to ski test for his former brand colleague Vincent Kriechmayr, among others. That obviously whetted his appetite for more ...