Four Hills Tournament: Karl Geiger scares his own daughter – "Oops, dad falls over"

Created: 12/29/2022, 2:08 p.m

By: Patrick Reichelt

The Four Hills Tournament begins in Oberstdorf.

Karl Geiger wants to shorten the gap to the competition in ski jumping in his home country.

Oberstdorf – Shortly before the start of the Four Hills Tournament, Karl Geiger almost got himself into a bit of trouble.

Germany's best ski jumper packed his bag at the last minute - but the journey from Oberstdorf to the team hotel in Tiefenbach, just outside his home town, was manageable.

"About a quarter of an hour," the 29-year-old smirked, "but I enjoyed it to the fullest."

Four Hills Tournament: Karl Geiger shocks his daughter during a dress rehearsal

Geiger seems relaxed, he is at peace before the start of the first highlight of this winter (today from 4 p.m., ZDF and Eurosport).

The top favorites are different.

For him, it's more like "everything can, nothing has to," as he said.

Because after a sluggish start to the season, Geiger doesn't even know exactly where he is these days.

But of course he still wants to attack: “Your own expectations are always the highest.

We already have plans here!”

Geiger wants to gradually catch up with the leading quartet in the World Cup, namely Dawid Kubacki (Poland), Halvor Egner Granerud (Norway), Stefan Kraft (Austria) and Anze Lanisek (Slovenia), and get close to them on the tour.

During the dress rehearsal in Engelberg, however, he fell – which also startled his daughter Luisa on the television screen (“Oops, dad falls over”).

On the following two days, Geiger practiced with the German DSV team in Oberstdorf, and national coach Stefan Horngacher found it promising.

"That was good for Karl," he said, "he took another big step forward."

Karl Geiger wants to win the Four Hills Tournament.

© Urs Flueeler/dpa

Ski jumping: Geiger dreams of winning the Four Hills Tournament

The odd thing is that Geiger doesn't appreciate his home system all that much.

Especially in the transition between the inrun and the take-off, he sometimes finds it difficult to keep his center of gravity.

But he knows: "If I'm good there, then I'm in really good shape and also good on other hills."

In the best case in Partenkirchen, Innsbruck and Bischofshofen.

To float through the tour on the much-vaunted cloud is something like the last big goal for his career.

"Winning the tour one day is one of my childhood dreams," said Geiger.

He's dreamed of it ever since he looked up to the pros as a flag child for his SC Oberstdorf - even if the organizers of the 2005 World Cup didn't give him his favorite nation: "I carried the plaque from Kazakhstan when we marched in."

Four Hills Tournament: 25,000 spectators in Oberstdorf

That didn't make the dream any smaller.

Geiger came quite close to him twice.

In 2019/20 he was third, a year later he won in Oberstdorf and in the end only had to let Kamil Stoch go first.

The highest step of the winner's podium in Bischofshofen is missing.

"And I will not give up the dream as long as I do this sport," he emphasizes.

Which could well be a while.

Geiger is still aiming for at least the 2026 Olympics in Italy.

"Provided I'm healthy and I enjoy the sport as much as I do now."

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And by the way, Geiger would like to remove the small blemish that sticks to his greatest successes at home.

He flew in both the victory in the 2020/21 ski jumping tournament and the world championship title a little later at the same place - due to the pandemic - without fans.

That would be different now, 25,000 fans will want to carry Geiger & Co. to the next sense of achievement.

Little Luisa Geiger will not be among them.

The two-year-old is allowed to follow her dad's eleventh tour on TV.