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On the ski jump in Oberstdorf you can jump in the evening because of the floodlights
Photo:
Georg Hochmuth / dpa
There are sad characters at every World Cup.
Mascots are usually not included.
When squirrel Nordi has to dance to the obligatory hit parade between jumps at the Nordic Ski World Championships in Oberstdorf, although there is no reason to be animated in the almost empty ski jumping stadium, a certain sadness is conveyed.
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Nordi (left) can not only dance, the mascot can also ski
Photo:
GEPA pictures / Thomas Bachun / imago images / GEPA pictures
Up until Karl Geiger's silver jump in the evening, that also described the emotional world of the German Ski Association (DSV) very well.
Two years ago, at the World Championships in Seefeld, which was overshadowed by Operation Aderlass, the German athletes won six gold and three silver medals and took second place behind Norway in the medal table.
Nobody in the DSV asked for a repetition of this record - but a few medals should jump out at a home World Cup.
Now the title fights in Oberstdorf will continue for over a week, so there are still many chances for gold, silver and bronze.
And yet there is no real World Cup feeling.
It goes so far that after a few days, DSV team manager Horst Hüttel doesn't want to talk about the comparison with past, atmospheric world championships and the huge contrast to the present.
The topic is "overused" and the calm at the competition venues with no alternative due to the corona pandemic is also a chance.
A chance for sport that can concentrate on itself, on the main thing.
If not thousands, but only six shout "Pull"
Hüttel honors this point of view.
It is understandable.
Athletes who complain about the circumstances may lose focus and thus their competitiveness.
Nevertheless, Oberstdorf conveys a certain desolation these days.
The city has dressed up - with advertising banners, with hundreds of helpful volunteers, with perfectly groomed trails and ski jumps.
But all shops are closed, in the city center, as in the competition venues, masks are compulsory and there are many critical voices in the population as to why participants from 62 nations have to come to the Allgäu in the current situation.
When the Nordic combined athletes competed for their World Cup premiere in the morning, you could hear Svenja Würth or Jenny Nowak's jumps from six throats, the elongated "pull", which is roared by up to 27,000 spectators in normal times.
It was the German ski jumpers around Olympic champion Carina Vogt who wanted to support their teammates.
A medal did not jump out at the World Cup premiere.
Like the day before with the male combined athletes, in two competitions for female ski jumpers - and also in cross-country skiing.
In the women's and men's skiathlon, that wasn't exactly expected either.
If everything went well, Katharina Hennig - with noisy home fans in the back - could have run for bronze after all.
Instead, the German service people reached into the wrong wax pot and Hennig ended up in 29th place.
"I'm very sad," said Hennig with tears at the finish.
“It's bitter when things go so wrong on a day that is perhaps the most important of the year.” The skis tend to grow together again and again during cross-country skiing, but it suited the mixed start of the DSV World Cup.
Geiger benefits from the turning wind
And so, with Karl Geiger, it was left to one of the Oberstdorfers to ensure the first really positive result from a German perspective.
Geiger grew up not far from the Schattenbergschanze.
"It's funny how many people you meet at the hill that you know," said Geiger after winning the silver medal on the normal hill.
The 27-year-old also needs a little luck to become the first German medalist at this World Cup.
Geiger benefited from his early start number in the first run.
When it was the turn of the top people around World Cup leader Halvor Granerud (Norway) and team mate Markus Eisenbichler, the wind turned and no further jumps were possible.
Geiger went into the second run in fourth and jumped to silver.
Geiger had previously identified "unfortunate circumstances" in the combiners around namesake Vinzenz Geiger and Eric Frenzel: "It's stupid if something like this happens at a home World Cup." Luck, bad luck, wrong wax - these are the circumstances that deal with sees the German team confronted in Oberstdorf.
A home advantage is not yet one of them.
But Geiger remains optimistic: "I think there's more to come."
Icon: The mirror