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Maren Lundby celebrates World Cup gold
Photo:
QUAY PFAFFENBACH / REUTERS
It was an unworthy award ceremony given the historical significance of the success of ski jumper Maren Lundby.
But that's the way it is in times of the corona pandemic.
DOSB President Alfons Hörmann presented the medals in front of an estimated 100 people - athletes, coaches, supervisors and photographers.
The Norwegian Lundby had won the first competition on the large hill at a Nordic World Ski Championships a few minutes earlier.
Men have been jumping from the world's major hills at world championships since 1924.
The world championship premiere showed a large gap in performance, but at the same time excellent sport at the top.
No fewer than 14 jumps were over 125 meters, in the second round Silje Opseth (Norway) and Ema Klinec from Slovenia just barely missed the 140-meter mark.
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Maren Lundby
Photo:
Karl-Josef Hildenbrand / dpa
"It was a top-class competition with many long jumps," said the German national coach Andreas Bauer.
"It was an advertisement for our sport." Bauer would have liked to add another chapter to the German success story in women's ski jumping, but his best athlete did not have her best day.
Katharina Althaus jumped 113.5 and 121 meters and landed in twelfth place.
The woman from Oberstdorf did not seem disappointed: "That was an important competition and a big step for us."
Lundby becomes a World Cup star instead of Granerud
For Lundby it was the fourth medal at this World Championships after silver on the normal hill and in the mixed team as well as bronze in the team competition.
She is taking on the role that the Norwegian side had planned for her male colleague Halvor Granerud: ski jumping superstar.
Granerud almost ensured that Lundby would not have been allowed to compete in her last competition.
In the morning, Granerud's positive corona finding became known.
At first it was unclear what that could mean for the Norwegian team.
"It was an up and down," Lundby said after her victory.
“We weren't sure if we could take off.
That's why I had a completely different preparation. ”The responsible health authority did not classify the teammates as close contacts and so Lundby was allowed to start after another negative test result.
Unimpressed by Granerud's bad luck, Lundby showed all her skills, all her routine.
The 27-year-old has been among the world's best for years.
Lundby has won 30 world cup competitions, was crowned Olympic champion in Pyeongchang in 2018 and was world champion on the normal hill in Falun two years ago.
This season, however, she had only been on the podium once before the World Cup.
"I haven't even realized that I'm the first large hill winner," Lundby said.
Routine beats youth
In the competition, she won the battle of the generations together with silver medalist Sara Takanashi.
This season, many young athletes have jumped into the foreground and raised the entire sport to a better level.
These include the Slovenians Klinec, 22, and Nika Kriznar, 20, from Norway the 21-year-old Opseth or Thea Minyan Bjørseth, 17, and above all Sara Marita Kramer from Austria.
Bauer looks a little jealously at the other nations: "These young athletes have a very good jump quality," he had told SPIEGEL before the World Cup.
“They jump symmetrically and put the skis very flat.
They are well educated and very advanced for their young age. «It wasn't enough to win the World Cup because Lundby was in top form in time.
Takanashi, the most successful female jumper in history with 60 World Cup victories, once again missed her first World Cup gold.
The jumping was even more tragic for the Austrian Kramer.
The 19-year-old had missed a medal from the normal hill because of a controversial shortening of the inrun, now Kramer caught the worst wind conditions in the second round of the leading group and landed again in fourth place.
"Maybe I had too little nerve," said Kramer on ORF.
Since the large hill is now a permanent part of the World Cup program, the young generation will have a few more opportunities in the years to come.
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