2023-12-26 23:30:00
All eight World Cup winners of the current ski jumping season come from Austria or Germany. It becomes even clearer when looking at the podium places: a ski jumper who does not come from the two host countries of the Four Hills Tournament was on the podium only three times. One thing is certain before the start of the 72nd tour: the Austrian-German rivalry that has existed for years or almost decades will be given new life.
In the recent past this same thing had stalled. Stefan Kraft is currently in top form and the German team is also hoping to have a say in the overall victory for the first time since Sven Hannawald (2002). Martin Schmitt, himself a multiple overall World Cup winner, world champion and now an expert and co-commentator at Eurosport, thinks that Stefan Kraft is the most important person to beat. “He’s in crazy shape. He always had problems in Garmisch, it will probably be a challenge for him again, but in this form he is the measure of all things.” Kraft has five wins this season, the German duo Karl Geiger and Pius Paschke with two and one respectively. The fact that the national duel is taking place again can only be good for the tour, says Schmitt: “The stadiums will be full.”
The rivalry between Austria and Germany was more explosive in the past than it is currently, says Schmitt. “It has already decreased during my time. In the past, when the ski jumpers in Innsbruck still had to go up to the jump in front of the spectators, there was more contact with the fans, so you quickly had to listen to something.” He also had to listen to something here and there. “I had the duel with Andi Widhölzl in 1999/2000, which he then won. There was nothing between us, everything was fair. But there were sayings beforehand that I had to listen to. And I still have to listen to it today,” says Schmitt with a laugh.
Schmitt ended his career in 2014, right in the middle of a time when Austria had a fixed ticket to overall victory. At the beginning of this series, in 2008/2009, Wolfgang Loitzl was “a surprise, who also got into shape through the dress rehearsal in Engelberg. This created something; in the end it was almost nothing special to win the tour. It was their event. That was an amazing era.”
Schmitt: “You need a run in which a lot of things solve themselves”
Schmitt himself has two third places (2000 and 2001) as his best tour placements. To triumph in the largest, most publicized ski jumping competition, you need “extraordinary form. You need a run in which a lot of things resolve themselves. Stefan Kraft had that at the beginning of this season.” Who are his favorites? “The overall World Cup doesn’t lie,” says Schmitt – Kraft leads there ahead of Andreas Wellinger and Karl Geiger. “But there are always surprises on the tour.”
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