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Start of the Four Hills Tournament: Karl Geiger on the upswing

2022-12-29T19:27:42.039Z


Atmosphere like in the pre-Corona period, cheering over the DSV jumpers and a Norwegian who doesn't care about all the vicissitudes of the wind - the opening jump of the Four Hills Tournament makes you want to go ski jumping again.


Enlarge image

Karl Geiger surprises with fourth place

Photo: Angelika Warmuth / dpa

The jump back:

They were struggling, their form was gone, expectations were lower than they had been for a long time, but a few jumps in Oberstdorf changed the mood: Andreas Wellinger and Karl Geiger are suddenly back among the world leaders.

Wellinger with sixth place and above all Geiger with fourth place probably even surprised themselves.

The upward trend was already noticeable in the previous days, but nobody had thought that they would be able to keep up so well with the very best at the start of the Four Hills Tournament.

Ski jumping is a fickle business.

The result:

The Norwegian Halvor Egner Granerud preserved his outstanding form from training and qualification and clearly won the opening competition in Oberstdorf.

Behind him, Poland's Piotr Zyla and Dawid Kubacki finished second and third.

And then comes Geiger, who relegated the Austrian veteran Stefan Kraft to fifth place.

The first round:

Granerud had already demonstrated the balance of power in the first round.

Despite constant delays due to changing winds, he remained completely cool and unfazed and landed the longest jump at 142 meters.

Zyla and Kubacki had already placed behind the Norwegian and deposited their candidacy for a possible overall victory.

With their jumps, Geiger and Wellinger were responsible for the good atmosphere in the audience.

The wind, the wind:

First a constant tailwind, which pushed the distances, then suddenly an updraft when the best were waiting upstairs: The jumping was a lottery, and the wires were burning between the boss of the hill, Georg Späth, and the FIS director, Sandro Pertile, if you talked to walkie-talkies can speak of it.

Lengthen start-up or shorten it again?

The jumping became a nerve test for the top stars.

And the spectators whiled away the time singing into Mark Forster's »Choirs«.

But even that didn't upset Granerud and Co.

The second pass:

An image of the first pass.

Again it started with a tailwind, again the anemometer switched at the end, and again the jump tower became the waiting room for the best.

Evenings like this show who really has what it takes to be a champion.

Granerud has it.

The high flyer:

The 26-year-old World Cup winner from the previous season had a lot to deal with after the Olympic Games: only 30th on the normal hill and eighth on the large hill.

Now the competition has to pay for that.

Before Oberstdorf, Kubacki was considered the big favorite for overall success, now the roles are being redistributed.

Despite the good form of Geiger and Wellinger: Sven Hannawald will remain the last German overall winner of the tour in 2002.

Kubacki and Granerud seem too self-confident.

And self-confidence is half the battle in ski jumping.

The loser:

Wellinger and Geiger were beaming, and the young Philipp Raimund couldn't stop celebrating after 14th place.

But there was another face at DSV - that of Markus Eisenbichler.

For years he was the German figurehead, now he snuck away after the end in the first round, thinking aloud "whether it still makes sense to continue torturing yourself".

However, it would be too early to say goodbye to a ski jumping career, because, see above, this sport is exposed to too many vicissitudes.

The omen of Oberstdorf:

It says: "You can't win the tour in Oberstdorf, but you can lose it there." The Slovenian Anze Lanisek, one of the shooting stars of the scene, can hang the calendar slogan on his wall.

After his tenth place with a good amount of points behind, he can already tick off the overall success.

Corona is over:

25,000 people, crowded together, forming a black, red and gold sea with their flags, into which the jumpers fly - Doctor Drosten will feel confirmed.

The eternal expert:

The winners come and go, Toni Innauer stays.

The ZDF expert gets a deep wrinkle in his face year after year, but the ski jumping professor from Austria remains unbeatable in the congenial duo with moderator Norbert König.

Sentences like Wellinger: "You can't escape your talent forever" or "The tour is capricious" are welcome.

This is how it goes on:

On January 1st, first the lunchtime roast, then the New Year's concert with the Blue Danube Waltz and the Radetzky March, then the jumping from Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

Traditions are so important.

Source: spiegel

All sports articles on 2022-12-29

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