The winner of the recent Ghost Four Hills Tournament can look forward to record prize money of almost 100,000 euros (Audi-Arena in Oberstdorf)
The kick-off competition of the 70th Four Hills Tournament will take place on Wednesday in the southernmost municipality in Germany, Oberstdorf. As in the previous year, there will be no spectators in Oberstdorf. Not even at the New Year’s competition in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and the jumping of the Austrian half of the tour on January 4th in Innsbruck and on January 6th in Bischofshofen. Although the seven-day incidence in Austria can be compared with that in Bavaria and is even higher in the state of Tyrol, the Austrian authorities waited until shortly before to make their decision. Ski tourism is seen as vital, every advertisement counts. One day before Christmas, in view of the spread of Omikron, one had to admit that full ski jumping stadiums are out of the question.
Now that nobody wanted to appear as a corona harmless person, the Austrian Ski Association immediately followed suit. On the same day, he dismissed the women’s jump team’s kotrainer, Romed Moroder, because he refused a Covid vaccination. Of course, this has no effect on the Four Hills Tournament. The women are not allowed to jump, although they are increasingly demanding to do so. Of all people, Katharina Althaus from Oberstdorf is at the forefront.
The last German overall tour victory (of today’s TV expert Sven Hannawald) was 20 years ago – a small eternity. Karl Geiger, also from Oberstdorf, was third two years ago and second in 2020/21. Is victory the next logical step this year? After all, Geiger leads the overall ranking quite comfortably after nine of 27 World Cup competitions. He has been on the podium five times and won two competitions.
The toughest competitor is the World Cup runner-up and three-time winner of the season Ryoyu Kobayashi from Japan. From his own warehouse, Geiger is most likely to be in danger from Markus Eisenbichler from TSV Siegsdorf. The second runner-up in 2018/19 jumped onto the podium twice this season in the World Cup. In the end, however, he was completely out of shape. At the dress rehearsal for the tour, the World Cup competition in Engelberg, Switzerland, it was only enough for ranks 27 and 35.
The strong Norwegian team is led by Halvor Egner Granerud, the overall World Cup winner last year. Anze Lanisek is the surprise man of the season for the Slovenians. As fourth place in the World Cup, he’s in better shape than ever before. Stefan Kraft, the last Austrian winner of the tour in 2015, is still the eagles’ greatest hope. Last year’s Polish winner Kamil Stoch showed his skills in the World Cup to a limited extent so far.
In addition to Geiger and Eisenbichler, the German line-up consists of Pius Paschke (WSV Kiefersfelden), Constantin Schmid (WSV Oberaudorf), Andreas Wellinger (SC Ruhpolding), the 33-year-old veteran Severin Freund (WSV-DJK Rastbüchl) and Stephan Leyhe (SC Willingen). As Hesse, Leyhe is the only non-Bavarian in the team. In Garmisch-Partenkirchen, athletes from the second row will also get a chance as a so-called national group. In Oberstdorf, the Austrian head coach of the DSV team, Stefan Horngacher, does not make use of this option. This allows him to put up a “national group” again at a later World Cup competition in Germany. The jumps in Titisee-Neustadt and Willingen in January and ski flying in Oberstdorf in mid-March come into question.
The Schattenberg ski jump in Oberstdorf will not be flown, but perhaps one of the participants will manage to beat the hill record of 143.5 meters. This was set up by the Norwegian Sigurd Pettersen in 2003 – that was also a while ago. A new record could even pave the way to overall tour victory. This pays off financially. For the first time, almost 100,000 euros in prize money have been announced for the win.
