Bartels will comment live on ski jumping for ARD on Saturday, but is 5,000 kilometers away at 27 degrees

Created: 2022-12-16, 2:44 p.m

By: Andreas Knobloch

Tom Bartels comments for ARD ski jumping and the World Cup final.

© IMAGO/Ulrich Wagner

Commenting on a World Cup final, but accompanying the ski jumpers beforehand.

A big balancing act for Tom Bartels at ARD, but a feasible one.

Engelberg/Doha - When the ski jumpers pursue their winter sport on Saturday, ARD will also be there live.

Good news for all fans of Karl Geiger, Markus Eisenbichler and their colleagues.

According to the weather forecast, it will be between minus two and minus seven degrees cold in Engelberg, Switzerland, on Saturday.

The athletes will try to brave the cold weather while the commentator is literally in the warm studio.

Tom Bartels will comment on the jumping, but not on site in a heated booth, but from the International Broadcast Center in Doha, with a two-hour time difference.

In Doha it will be up to 27 degrees warm at the weekend, but Bartels cannot be in Switzerland because a second sporting event this weekend will probably put everything in the shade.

Even hill records by Karl Geiger.

Ski jumping and soccer World Cup: "Maybe a good distraction"

"Maybe ski jumping is a good distraction," says Bartels of the SID, for which a real contrast program awaits before the showdown in hot Qatar.

Because before the ARD commentator accompanies the duel between Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe for millions of German viewers on Sunday (4:00 p.m. CET) in the Lusail Stadium on TV screens, the winter ski jumping routine is the order of the day.

"I'm already thinking a bit about the final," Bartels admits ahead of the duel between defending champions France and Argentina.

But he is "well on the subject" in ski jumping, so he doesn't let himself be disturbed on the microphone before his second World Cup final (also on Merkur.de in the live ticker).

Tom Bartels reveals the secret recipe for successful days

The tension comes "automatically", says Bartels, who follows a simple recipe for success for important days: "Go to bed early, sleep well and have a good breakfast".

That's what he wants to do on Sunday, too, before he takes a seat next to expert Thomas Broich in the press stand of the "golden bathtub" in Lusail, which can seat 88,966 spectators.

Bartels took a photo with Esther Sedlaczek during the tournament and was mistaken for Bastian Schweinsteiger.

"I want to be able to enjoy the game as much as the Argentinian or French fans do," says Bartels.

Because even if he has already commented on some major events, a World Cup final is still something special.

His colleague Julia Metzner comments on the radio at ARD.

First ski jumping, then the World Championships: Bartels hopes that he is up to par

In 2014, he became internationally known for his commentary on Mario Götze's winning goal in Rio ("Do it! Do it! He does it!").

"You can't plan that.

I just hope that I'm up to the decisive moment in the game," says Bartels.

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The controversial tournament in the Emirate of Qatar ended with Bartels commenting that the sports reporter arrived "with no good feeling" because of the accompanying circumstances.

But on Sunday he wants to focus on the sport and "don't take himself too seriously: You shouldn't overload the spectators either," said Bartels, who flies back to Germany on Monday night.

But like Messi, it could also be the last World Cup final for Bartels.

In 2026, ZDF will broadcast the final, the next possibility would probably not arise until 2030.

"I don't know if people still want to hear me there," he says, laughing.