VFour hills, eight jumps, one dream: finally winning the tournament. For almost 21 years now, German ski jumpers have been struggling with it. 71st edition, next chance. As early as this Thursday (4.30 p.m. on ZDF and Eurosport), fans of the fascinating outdoor sport will receive the first indications as to whether Karl Geiger, Markus Eisenbichler and Andreas Wellinger can have legitimate hopes of turning their backs on Oberstdorf with vigor and enthusiasm and heading on to take Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
Eisenbichler, still looking for old form and strength, knows regarding the radiance of the ski jumping spectacle Four Hills Tournament runs out “If you win the tour, you have legendary status. Especially as a German.” Eisenbichler expresses what also spurs on his colleagues: “It’s regarding time that one of us does it once more.” The emotional jumper, with six titles the German record jumper at the Nordic World Ski Championships, said a few days before the start of the Schattenbergschanze in Oberstdorf: “My eyes light up when I think regarding the tournament.”
It won’t be enough to triumph at the tour with bright eyes alone. The traditional German-Austrian event is far too complex and complicated for that. Everything has to fit between the start in the Allgäu valley of the hills and the final in Pongau on the Paul-Ausserleitner-Schanze in Bischofshofen. Sven Hannawald, the first Grand Slam winner of the Four Hills Tournament and still the last German who was allowed to stretch the Golden Eagle into the evening sky as the proud overall winner, knows it exactly from his own experience. “You need eight perfect jumps,” he told the FAZ. The formula for complete triumph is actually quite simple.
It is four times two plus four – and yet it is so incredibly difficult. Two formidable jumps each at the four tour stations in Oberstdorf, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Innsbruck and Bischofshofen. Also: four more jumps that are good enough to pass the qualification. 50 ski jumpers have to buy the ticket for the competition the day before. Only a short phase of weakness – and the dream of winning the tour has burst. Stephen Kraft example, experienced this trauma almost a year ago. In the qualification for the New Year’s competition in 2022, the Austrian world record holder failed in ski flying on the large Olympic hill.
For the first time once more spectators in Oberstdorf
Kraft is in great form at the moment. Likewise the one who has won four times this World Cup season Pole David Kubacki, who, thanks to his jumping ability, has a legitimate chance of winning the overall title and is the man to beat. The Slovenian Anze Lanisek has so far found the right mix of approach, take-off and landing, which can make him a winning jumper. Something that Halvor Egner Granerud is also capable of, because the Norwegian has a similar flow to the competing trio from Austria, Poland and Slovenia. And the Germans?
