Alpine ski great Marcel Hirscher ends comeback attempt for Winter Olympics

Sport

Alpine ski great Marcel Hirscher ends comeback attempt for Winter Olympics

2026-01-09 21:01 Last Updated At：21:21

SALZBURG, Austria (AP) — Alpine ski great Marcel Hirscher is ending his effort to make a comeback for the Milan Cortina Olympics.

The 36-year-old Hirscher came out of a five-year retirement last season to compete for the Netherlands on the World Cup circuit, then was set back after just three races by tearing the ACL in his left knee.

The record eight-time World Cup overall champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist was aiming to return again and qualify for the Winter Games in Italy that open Feb. 6.

“The truth is it’s not possible at the moment,” Hirscher said Friday in a video message in German posted on social media. “The pace which I can go right now is not on a World Cup level.”

The former Austria superstar said a calf injury forced him to take a two-week break over the holidays and he now lacks pace and confidence to compete.

“Haters are going to love it,” he said. “I am also not happy with the situation. I’m sorry that it’s not going to happen this year.”

Hirscher signed off by telling fans he hoped they would see him race next season.

He competed at three Olympic Games from 2010-18 and won titles in giant slalom and Alpine combined, plus a silver in slalom.

An Olympic gold medal in slalom eluded the best slalom skier of his generation, whose 67 career wins in World Cup races is second on the all-time men’s list behind Ingemar Stenmark.

AP Olympic coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

US aviator missing after Iran shot down fighter jet has been rescued

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States said Sunday it rescued a service member missing behind enemy lines since Iran downed a fighter jet, as President Donald Trump escalated pressure on Tehran with renewed threats to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump wrote in a social media post that the aviator is injured but “will be just fine,” adding that the rescue involved “dozens of aircraft” and that the U.S. had been monitoring his location in the lead-up to his rescue.

“This brave Warrior was behind enemy lines in the treacherous mountains of Iran, being hunted down by our enemies, who were getting closer and closer by the hour,” Trump wrote.

The airman's extraction followed a frantic U.S. search-and-rescue operation after the Friday crash of the F-15E Strike Eagle, as Iran also promised a reward for anyone who turned in an “enemy pilot.”

A second crew member was rescued earlier.

The fighter jet was the first U.S. aircraft to have crashed in Iranian territory since the war, now in its sixth week, erupted.

Trump said last week that the U.S. had “decimated” Iran and would finish the war “very fast.” Two days later, Iran shot down two U.S. military planes, showing the ongoing perils of the bombing campaign and the ability of a degraded Iranian military to continue to hit back.

The other jet to go down was a U.S. A-10 attack aircraft. Neither the status of the crew nor exactly where it crashed was immediately known.

On Sunday, Iran’s state TV aired a video showing thick black smoke rising into the air, claiming that they had shot down an American transport plane and two helicopters that were part of the rescue operation. However, a regional intelligence official briefed on the mission told The Associated Press that the U.S. military blew up two transport planes due to a technical malfunction, forcing it to bring in additional aircraft to complete the rescue.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the covert mission.

In Kuwait, an Iranian drone attack caused significant damage to two power plants and put a water desalination station out of service, according to the Ministry of Electricity. No injuries were reported from the attack, the ministry said.

In Bahrain, the national oil company said that a drone attack caused a fire at one of its storage facilities, which was extinguished. It said the damage was still being assessed and no injuries had been reported.

In the United Arab Emirates, authorities responded to multiple fires at the Borouge petrochemicals plant, a joint venture of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. and Borealis of Austria. They say the fires were caused by falling debris following successful interceptions by air defense systems, but production at the plant in Ruwais, near the UAE’s western border with Saudi Arabia, has halted.

The strike came a day after Israel struck a petrochemical plant in Iran that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said generated revenue that it had used to fund the war.

The war began with joint U.S.-Israel strikes on Feb. 28 and has killed thousands, shaken global markets, cut off key shipping routes and spiked fuel prices. Both sides have threatened and hit civilian targets, bringing warnings of possible war crimes.

Trump renewed his threats for Iran to open up the Strait of Hormuz by Monday or face devastating consequences, writing Saturday in a social media post: “Remember when I gave Iran ten days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT. Time is running out — 48 hours before all Hell will reign down on them.”

The waterway is a critical chokepoint for global energy shipments, especially oil and gas moving from the Persian Gulf to Europe and Asia. Disruptions there have injected volatility into the market and pushed oil and gas-importing countries to seek alternative sources.

“The doors of hell will be opened to you” if Iran’s infrastructure is attacked, Gen. Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi with the country’s joint military command said late Saturday in response to Trump’s renewed threat, state media reported. In turn, the general threatened all infrastructure used by the U.S. military in the region.

But Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Tahir Andrabi, told the AP that his government’s efforts to broker a ceasefire are “right on track” after Islamabad last week said that it would soon host talks between the U.S. and Iran.

Mediators from Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt were working to bring the U.S. and Iran to the negotiating table, according to two regional officials.

The proposed compromise includes a cessation of hostilities to allow a diplomatic settlement, according to a regional official involved in the efforts and a Gulf diplomat briefed on the matter. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door diplomacy.

Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, issued a veiled threat late Friday to disrupt traffic through a second strategic waterway in the region, the Bab el-Mandeb.

The strait, 32 kilometers (20 miles) wide, links the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. More than a tenth of seaborne global oil and a quarter of container ships pass through it.

“Which countries and companies account for the highest transit volumes through the strait?” Qalibaf wrote.

More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began.

In Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people have died, while 19 have been reported dead in Israel and 13 U.S. service members have been killed. In Lebanon, more than 1,400 people have been killed and more than 1 million people have been displaced. Ten Israeli soldiers have died there.

This report has been corrected to show that Borealis is an Austrian company and not Australian.

Metz reported from Jerusalem and Magdy from Cairo. Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this report.