First World Cup victory at the age of 33
Paschke writes ski jumping history in Engelberg
December 16, 2023, 6:25 p.m
Pius Paschke is an experienced ski jumper. However, the Kiefersfelden resident was only able to celebrate his first World Cup at the age of 33: at the dress rehearsal for the Four Hills Tournament in Switzerland, he trumped the competition from Norway and Austria.
Ski jumper Pius Paschke surprisingly won the World Cup in Engelberg and thus secured Germany’s third victory in a row. A week after Karl Geiger’s double success in Klingenthal, the 33-year-old from Kiefersfelden prevailed in central Switzerland ahead of Olympic champion Marius Lindvik from Norway and World Cup leader Stefan Kraft from Austria.
Paschke is the oldest premiere winner in World Cup history and the oldest German winner of an individual competition. The DSV Adler last celebrated three individual victories in a row in the winter of 2017/18, when Richard Freitag and Andreas Wellinger won in Nischni Tagil and Freitag in Titisee-Neustadt.
In the first competition of the traditional dress rehearsal for the Four Hills Tournament (December 29th to January 6th), Paschke jumped twice to 135.0 m, moving up from sixth to first place. With 316.8 points, he was almost one meter ahead of Lindvik (315.1). Paschke reached the podium for the first time in second place at the first competition of the season in Kuusamo, Finland. The veteran finished at least eighth in each of the seven competitions so far this season.
Wellinger falls back
In difficult conditions, Olympic champion Wellinger, who was still leading after the first round, fell back to twelfth place. Geiger himself, who has already won twice in Engelberg, was unable to build on Klingenthal and only took 20th place after two mixed jumps (124.0/128.0). The German champion Martin Hamann came 24th, Stephan Leyhe (Willingen) landed in 26th place.
Geiger’s club colleague Philipp Raimund, who recently missed the World Cup due to an infection, initially confirmed his strong qualification and temporarily took the lead in the first round with 139.5 m (160.5), but was disqualified because of a suit that did not comply with the rules. He would have been in fourth place at halftime.