SOELDEN, Austria (AP) — Seven-time overall World Cup champion Marcel Hirscher has been voted skier of the year for 2018, becoming the second athlete after Swiss great Pirmin Zurbriggen to receive the award for a fourth time.
The international association of ski journalists says Hirscher will receive the Skieur d'Or-Serge Lang Trophy, named after the founder of Alpine skiing's World Cup in the 1960s, after winning the vote ahead of Ester Ledecka, who took Olympic gold in both Alpine skiing (super-G) and snowboarding (parallel giant slalom).
Hirscher succeeds Mikaela Shiffrin, who got the award last year after the American won her first overall World Cup title.
The newly introduced Prix Armando Trovati, named after the long-time Associated Press photographer and ski expert who died last year, was awarded to Austrian photographer Hans Bezard for a picture of Patrick Schweiger skiing through a gate during the downhill in Kitzbuehel.
