Double ending: Karl Geiger (l.) missed victory in the overall World Cup at the season finale, Severin Freund announced his departure.
Photo: dpa/Daniel Karmann
It’s been seven years since Severin Freund was the last German to secure the overall World Cup for ski jumping in a true heart-stopping finale in Planica. At the same time, he got the big crystal globe in front of the Slovenian Peter Prevc and thus crowned his unique career. Karl Geiger would have wished for a similar happy ending at the same place this Sunday. But the man from Oberstdorf clearly lost the final duel against his Japanese arch-rival Ryoyu Kobayashi on the gigantic ski-flying hill. And in the end there were even tears in the bright sunshine when Severin Freund announced the end of his unique career.
“He was my role model for many years and I was able to learn a lot from him,” commented Karl Geiger. Buddy Markus Eisenbichler admitted that tears flowed on Saturday when the 33-year-old friend announced his final farewell decision to the German team. »An indescribable greatness of this sport is walking. I’ve been to boarding school with him and he’s always been just a great guy. But he really deserves the time with his family,” explained Eisenbichler.
The supervisors stood in line at the bottom of the hill when Severin Freund had safely landed the last flight of his career after 215 meters. “Thank you, Severin,” was written on the skis that were handed to him, then he was carried on his shoulders through the cheering stadium. Severin Freund will go down in history as the ski jumper who, after a long dry spell after the departure of Martin Schmitt and Sven Hannawald, led German ski jumping back to old successes.
The initial spark for this was the team’s Olympic victory in Sochi in 2014 with Severin Freund as the last jumper. It took the hard worker a long time to get to the top, but then he celebrated spectacular success after winning the Olympics as ski flying world champion, three-time ski jumping world champion and overall world cup winner. The last of his 22 World Cup victories came in 2016 in Kuusamo, Finland, just after a hip operation he had fought back. After that, his never-ending story of suffering continued, in which anyone else would probably have given up. Despite two cruciate ligament tears in a row and latent back problems, he managed to return to the top of the world. Last year he became world champion with the team in Oberstdorf and this winter he won team silver again at the Ski Flying World Championships. “I’ve had a career that I’m very proud of and very grateful for. There were incredibly beautiful moments and then the injuries brought me down again. All in all, it’s unreal what I’ve managed to do there,” said Freund.
The thoughts of resigning have only increased in recent weeks. “I was just wondering what to work for next season. But I couldn’t think of a destination. So I hand in my skis and suits. I don’t need them anymore – and a comeback would definitely not be the best idea for my body,” Freund described his point of view. In the next few months he wants to take care of his family with his wife Caren and his little daughter – and then think about how to proceed: “I know 0.0 at the moment. I was a 100 percent athlete – and I’ll think about where I can be happy afterwards.”
National coach Stefan Horngacher is not the only one who hopes that Severin Freund will continue to play an important role in German ski jumping in the future: »Severin was the calming influence and exemplified how you have to behave as a top athlete. We could also use him very well in other functions.« After all, German ski jumping has had a good but by no means outstanding season. It is true that some medals were won at the major Olympic events with two bronze and silver medals in the team at the Ski Flying World Championships. Nevertheless, especially at the Four Hills Tournament, where Germany has been waiting for its first overall victory for 20 years, and also in the overall World Cup, not all plans came to fruition.
“It was a super good season, but there was one ahead of me. We have to analyze and classify that. Because you can never stand still,” Geiger summed up. With 242 meters he managed another nice final flight on Sunday, but the 16th place in the final flying was a disappointment. In a duel with Ryoyu Kobayashi (8th), he missed the longed-for big crystal ball by 106 points.
After his ski flying world championship title in the previous winter, Geiger started at the same place with high hopes. But the tiredness after a “very strenuous season” was just as great as the pressure to succeed. Because of this, Geiger had already failed at the Four Hills Tournament in fourth place and at the Olympic Winter Games with two third places, where he had started as a favorite in each case. Horngacher: »We end the season with mixed feelings. Especially because of Severin’s farewell – we will miss him.«
