Dominic Thiem - Austria's true sportsman of the year 2019?
Marcel Hirscher is Austria's Sportsman of the Year for the sixth time. But would not Dominic Thiem have earned this award after his outstanding year at least as much? The opinions about it are also in the Tennisnet editorship.
by Jens Huiber and Nikolaus Fink
last edit: Nov 01, 2019, 11:54 pm
By Jens Huiber
That's why Marcel Hirscher is rightly Austria's sportsman of the year
Dominic Thiem played a very, very good year in 2019, no question. The first 1000 title in Indian Wells, the renewed reaching of the final in Roland Garros, finally the successes at the two home tournaments in Kitzbühel and Vienna. The recent entry into the ATP final in London has long since been confirmed, as I said: a very, very good year that would have absolutely justified his election as Austria's Sportsman of the Year.
That it has now become again Marcel Hirscher, is also absolutely fine. Because Hirscher just in this last comparison period, the nose, albeit scarcer than in previous years, front had. That may perhaps be fastened not only to the victories of the race (eight in the past season), the record of eight victories in the overall World Cup that seems to be unachievable at the moment - but also to the fact that Marcel Hirscher is the only big event of the year, the ski World Cup in Aare, has once again brought gold in slalom. Not quite healthy by the way - a parallel to the performances of Dominic Thiem at the Australian and the US Open.
Hirscher's choice is not a decision against Thiem, but one for the most successful Austrian skier in history.
It is now often argued against Hirscher that skiing is only of enormous relevance in Austria. Right. But that's why it's also the choice of Austria's athlete of the year. In Lithuania, basketball players are the focus, in Cuba it used to be the boxers.
And besides, as the critics like to suggest, alpine skiing is a negligible marginal discipline, whereas tennis is a world sport. That's theoretically correct. The opportunities to use the tennis racket are virtually unlimited worldwide, no matter on which continent. But does that mean, conversely, that every boy or girl who starts playing tennis around the world has a realistic chance of making a living as a professional? Of course not. Developing to the top ten player requires as much material commitment as the group one driver in the slalom World Cup. Since there is the elite group is a closed shop.
Dominic Thiem profited from the expertise of Günter Bresnik and the existing infrastructure in the Südstadt, Marcel Hirscher from his father Ferdinand and the possibilities of the ÖSV. Privileges that a talented tennis teenager in Morocco or junior skiers in Chile are more likely to fall back on.
Nevertheless, the gap has narrowed to a minimum this year - because Dominic Thiem has now also proven nerves of steel, won his own personal night slalom in Schladming. And in the process, he almost got into trouble against Verdasco, Berrettini and Schwartzman in Vienna - but he made it to the finish line with best time. However, probably only after voting by the eligible journalists.
Correct worries, it was in one of the many online comments after the election Hirscher very aptly, should not Dominic Thiem, if he lands again next year behind the Salzburg ski legend.
By Nikolaus Fink
That's why Austria's athlete of the year should have been called Dominic Thiem
One thing in advance: Marcel Hirscher is undoubtedly one of the best skiers of all time and deserves the highest recognition for his sporting achievements. The fact that it is expressed more strongly in ski-crazy Austria than elsewhere in the world is simply the DNA of the country. Nevertheless, Austria's athlete of the year would have been called Dominic Thiem this year.
Because the Lichtenwörther completed an outstanding season to date: Thiem won his first ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Indian Wells with a victory over Roger Federer - his character one of the greatest athletes of all time - and was again in the final of the French Open. On the way there, he also defeated a living legend with Novak Djokovic and narrowly missed by far the best clay court player of all time, Rafael Nadal.
A tennis player in Austria will have a hard time against a skier - especially if this skier is called Marcel Hirscher. But actually Thiem with his triumphs in Kitzbühel and in Vienna - a success that was not even Thomas pattern granted - even in his home country itself caused the greatest possible furore - and that without the massive financial support of an association such as the ÖSV.
To establish yourself in the world class as an Austrian is a lot more difficult in tennis than in skiing. The ÖTV has far from the means such as the ÖSV, also the competition in white sports is much higher than that in the skiing. Thiem's achievements are therefore much more difficult to achieve and therefore rank higher. With Djokovic, Nadal and Federer, the Lichtenwörther also has to deal with the three best players of all times - that's what makes Thiem's performance one of the best in Austria this year. Actually.
With five titles this season, Thiem is the sole record holder on the ATP tour, and the 26-year-old easily qualified for the ATP Finals and is likely to finish in the top five in the world rankings - and all in a sport practiced more globally than any other. Professional skiing, on the other hand, is limited to five to seven countries - and this is not intended to detract from Hirscher's performance in any way, but shows that Dominic Thiem has to clear many more obstacles for his successes than Salzburg.
What leads the election in addition ad absurdum: The distance from Hirscher to Thiem was only 51 votes lower compared to the previous year. And although Hirscher crowned himself a double Olympic champion and overall World Cup winner in 2018, Thiem had a weaker season than 2019. The suspicion is obvious that Hirscher's choice for the Austrian Sportsman of the Year rather a kind of "farewell gift" in the well-deserved pension than a mere assessment of sporting achievements. Because if that had happened, Dominic Thiem would have had to prevail this year. But what is not, can already be 2020.