Ruhetag instead of travel stress. A year ago, when the badly beaten and prematurely departed Pole Kamil Stoch had stowed the Golden Eagle in his suitcase beaming with joy, the German ski jumpers set out on the arduous journey from Bischofshofen to Titisee-Neustadt. Black Forest instead of Pongau. This time there is no chase from Austria to Germany. The team of national coach Stefan Horngacher can take a deep breath. Bischofshofen, which had already hosted the canceled and postponed Bergisel jumping of the Four Hills Tournament in addition to the classic three kings jumping, is also hosting the best ski jumpers in the world this weekend. The World Cup makes it possible. Also at the start: Tour dominator Ryoyu Kobayashi.
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The Japanese did not crown his great flying skills at the finals on the Paul-Ausserleitner-Schanze and won the Grand Slam like in winter 2018/2019. But after the three daily victories in Oberstdorf, Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Bischofshofen, it was enough for another triumph. The fact that the 25-year-old Kobayashi only finished fifth in the last competition of the Four Hills Tournament, which became a Three Hills Tournament due to the foehn onset in Innsbruck, he could get over because of the large points advantage he had previously achieved. In the end it was 24.2 points that Kobayashi was ahead of Marius Lindvik. In Halvor Egner Granerud, a second ski jumper completed the good results of the flying nation Norway.
And the Germans? Once again they missed their big dream of winning the tour 20 years after Sven Hannawald. Karl Geiger, who finished third in the last jumper, came fourth in the overall standings, directly behind his friend and specialist from the flying double room, Markus Eisenbichler. “In the end, it doesn’t matter whether I finished third or fourth in the overall standings. Because the goal was clearly something else, but it was done pretty quickly, ”said Geiger at the end of a long day at work. “We had it, and we still have it.”
“He feels things in the air like nobody”
Someone who definitely has it “can do it” already knows that after his return to Japan he will post his second golden eagle right next to the television. The trophy that identifies him as the winner of the tour will not be alone. Kobayashi’s first eagle is already there. His renewed coup is well deserved. No one was as constant and precise as the Japanese at the turn of the year.
“He’s a virtuoso, an artist,” said Toni Innauer, a former Olympic ski jumping champion who works for ZDF as an expert. “He feels things in the air that no one else can feel.” In addition: With the Austrian athletic trainer Richard Schallert and his Japanese compatriot, the ski jumping legend Noriaki Kasai as team leader of his jumping group, Kobayashi has evidently gathered the right experts around him. In the summer, they worked together intensively on the material and jumping system in Austria – not only in Innsbruck, but also and above all on Kobayashi’s favorite hill in Bischofshofen.
When he made the tour win there for the second time, he said, as expected, that he was “totally happy”. You couldn’t really see his joy on the cold final evening. But later on in a conversation, his fellow jumper Eisenbichler explained: “No, no, he’s looking forward to it.” Perhaps also about the economic aspect of his success. For the first time, the overall winner received a not inconsiderable prize money of 100,000 Swiss francs (around 96,000 euros).
The yellow jersey of the World Cup leader, which Kobayashi got from Geiger with his victory in the New Year’s competition, he will not give up for a long time and will probably wear it until the start of the Olympic Games. At the World Sports Festival in Beijing, Kobayashi is of course the favorite. But the competition is in wait. The German ski jumpers around Geiger and Eisenbichler, who “are definitely through” for the Olympics, as Horngacher confirmed, as well as the three others, for whom the national coach has not yet made a public decision, are definitely looking for a chance.
In contrast to the tour, which has been gloomy for the title fight for 20 years, things went splendidly for Team Germany at the Olympics and World Championships. With six world championship titles, Eisenbichler is the record world champion of the German Ski Association, and Andreas Wellinger still lives on having won gold on the normal hill four years ago at the Olympics in Pyeongchang. So it is international, except for the classic of ski jumping, the Four Hills Tournament, which is already being held for the 70th time.
The Germans continue to rely on the principle of hope. Geiger knows: “Kobayashi is not unbeatable. I’ve already been to him a few times. ”Like at the end now in Bischofshofen. Geiger’s plan for the future: “If you get the clap at the wrong time, you have to get up again.” Eisenbichler said: “There will be another tour next year.” And again the favorite should be Kobayashi.
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