The ski jumper Pius Paschke is one of the better in his industry, but he was rarely seen finishing so high that he then climbed onto the podium, which is popular in industry circles. You could also say that Paschke played second or third fiddle in the ski jumping orchestra, behind athletes like, well, Karl Geiger. But the beauty of sport is that it’s not a boring orchestra, but rather an unpredictable standup concert.
Saturday evening in Ruka, Finland was the best proof. The Munich native managed jumps of considerable distances from the large hill installed there: 142 and 142.5 meters and correspondingly generous points brought the 33-year-old second place behind a man named Stefan Kraft (144 and 143 meters). Kraft is Austrian, so he’s practically invincible in these times, even if he doesn’t wear a football jersey.
“That means a lot to me. That was really cool. I really like the hill,” said Paschke from Kiefersfelden after his two jumps and his debut on the World Cup podium. Paschke was part of the world champion team in 2021 and in the silver quartet at the Ski Flying World Championships in 2020; as an individual athlete he had not yet achieved any of these great successes.
Ski jumping fans of the German team will probably have had a very happy time this Saturday. Stephan Leyhe (Willingen), Andreas Wellinger (Ruhpolding) and Philipp Raimund (Oberstdorf) also left evidence of ambitions among the world’s top ski jumpers. They ended up at the top in the Finnish snow and ended up in third, fourth and seventh place. “Nobody could have expected that. That was just the start. The season is long,” said Paschke.
Former world champion Markus Eisenbichler was unable to make it into the World Cup squad during preparation. Martin Hamann (Aue) came twelfth, just behind eleventh from Oberstdorf, Karl Geiger.
