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Oberwiesenthal in the Ore Mountains.
The conditions at today's student cup of the German Ski Association could hardly be better.
But just a few days ago there was hardly any snow here on the Fichtelberg next to the ski jump, and the competition was on the brink.
Climate change means that it snows less and less here in the Ore Mountains.
Young athletes need to rethink.
Arne Hohlfeld was four years old when he first skied.
Today, at 14, he is one of the up-and-coming talents in the marginal sport of Nordic combined.
Is the training enough to win the student cup?
Reporter
"After the training jump, what do you have to think about in the competition?"
Arne Hohlfeld, Nordic Combined
»Yes, keep your back long and push it forward over your knee when you take off.
Yes, those are the points I have to consider.«
Today we jump first - and then we go to the cross-country ski run.
Ski jumping is a special challenge, both technically and mentally.
The fact that Arne lands on snow here today is no longer just down to nature.
In the popular winter sports resort of Oberwiesenthal, the average temperature is rising more and more.
The Free State of Saxony therefore expects the weather to become more extreme in the future: sometimes too warm, sometimes extremely cold, sometimes too dry, sometimes far too wet.
Skiing and training without artificial snow is almost unthinkable here at an altitude of around 1,000 meters.
Clubs or schools can therefore no longer train and train in a regulated manner on their own doorstep.
Geographer Maximilian Witting has been researching the effects of climate change on winter sports for years.
Maximilian Witting, LMU Munich
»In the youth field it is the case that the teams have to go further and further in order to get the training conditions in the winter or to prepare for the winter.
Of course, that reduces the number of people who are really willing to take on so much time and money to be able to somehow guarantee it for their own children or their own offspring.«
Arne comes from a skiing family.
His parents see enough chances for their son to progress in his sport even without optimal snow conditions.
Sylva Hohlfeld, Arne's mother
»They also have the option, or as they have already done, that they start on the normal track, which is now independent of the weather or snow, or sometimes land on the mat.
Although that is of course better when there really is snow.«
Sven Hohlfeld, Arne's father and trainer
»Let's put it this way, there were winters without snow in the past.
They are increasing now, but let’s see where the development is going.«
Nordic combined has long been a year-round sport.
The foundations for the winter competitions are laid during training in the summer: ski jumping on mats, cross-country skiing on roller skis.
Because of the climatic changes, many athletes train less and less on snow - not without consequences for their sporting development.
Maximilian Witting, LMU Munich
»If you don't really get to know the conditions of the snow anymore: How does that feel?
What kind of material do I have to choose?
How might I need to change my weight shift?
Or whatever, all these aspects that make it possible to move well on the snow, those simply deteriorate because I then increasingly have training conditions that are more like summer.«
Climate change is affecting ski resorts all over the world.
Because more snow also means more enthusiasm for winter sports.
Classic ski nations such as Norway, Austria and Switzerland have even more snow and fewer worries about young skiers – and a slight competitive advantage.
The DSV has recognized the problem, but sees itself armed at least in the Nordic disciplines.
Sepp Buchner, DSV Sports Director Ski Jumping and Combined
»Yes, it is the case that the Nordic countries have more snow, of course, because the climate is just like that, they have snow for longer.
That doesn't mean, however, that we aren't competitive, but rather that we will steer our concepts to »hybrid« in quotation marks.
We will put our summer strength in the room.
And I think we are competitive, as the successes of the last few years show that we don't have to worry that much.«
The student cup is going really well for Arne.
67 meters in the second round.
He leads the competition after jumping.
Arne Hohlfeld, Oberwiesenthal Elite Boarding School
»With the training jumps, I would have thought that others were still a little further ahead.
But it's nice like that."
However: Arne's lead over the second discipline, cross-country skiing, is not large.
Will he be able to maintain his position?
Oberwiesenthal depends on tourism and sport.
That's why a lot is being done here to make winter sports possible despite climate change: mats on the ski jumps, snow cannons on the slopes or snow farming - like here near the starting point for cross-country skiing in the Oberwiesenthal ski arena.
The artificial snow for the coming season is already stored here.
Sepp Buchner, DSV Sports Director Ski Jumping and Combination
"The snow is now being produced, and of course you try to keep the hill, the heap as high as possible, the ambient temperature as little contact surface as possible... That will then be done in the spring with insulating material - mostly wood chips, sawdust, so there too renewable sealing, materials sealed - and in the summer you always lose almost ten, 15, 20 percent of the whole thing.
So it stays within limits and we have snow when we need it.«
Even if all of this sounds like a panacea for skiing, it is still a vicious circle: What is supposed to save winter sports also pollutes the environment.
The snow cannons require an enormous amount of energy and cause extreme costs: in Oberwiesenthal, according to the local lift company, around 650,000 kilowatt hours of electricity and around 280,000 euros per season.
In this mild winter, the city expects double that.
Snow-making is only economical when temperatures are below zero for a longer period of time.
If there hadn't been snow, the DSV-Schülercup would have been resorted to on a plastic covered ski jump in the neighboring town of Pöhla.
Here the athletes land on plastic mats in both summer and winter.
Arne Hohlfeld holds a summer hill record on the Pöhlbachschanze - and he is also successful in the winter student cup.
Arne Hohlfeld, Oberwiesenthal Elite Boarding School
“The run itself was actually very good.
It was only at the end that Felix was a bit stronger.«
In the end, the 14-year-old took second place.
Winter sports competitions with sufficient natural snow will be fewer and fewer in the German low mountain ranges in the future - that much is clear.
The young sport wants to adapt: If there is snow, everything stays the same.
If there is no one, people dodge on mats or make snow themselves - as long as it can be financed and the ever milder temperatures still allow it.
