“Unfortunately something was left behind”
German ski jumpers make a mistake at the Oberstdorf opener
February 23, 2024, 7:56 p.m
Botched start at home ski flying in Oberstdorf: The German ski jumpers cannot attack the front in the super team competition, Slovenia wins ahead of Norway and Austria. Andreas Wellinger only does one good jump, while Karl Geiger has to watch.
Andreas Wellinger searched in vain for “energy”, Pius Paschke missed his “rhythm”: The German ski jumpers clearly missed the podium at the start of the long flying weekend in Oberstdorf. There was no chance of higher than sixth place among the twelve duos; victory went to Slovenia with third place in the World Cup Timi Zajc and Domen Prevc ahead of Norway and Austria.
Both Wellinger and Paschke showed a good and a moderate jump. “I’m a bit looking for where I can get the energy at the top. It was sometimes fast and sometimes high – but I need the combination,” said World Cup runner-up Wellinger on ARD. The Heini-Klopfer ski jump was almost 23 meters short of the podium. Karl Geiger, 2020 ski flying world champion, is currently in a slump in form and was not named to the two-man team. The Oberstdorfer followed the events in his homeland as a spectator.
In the third super team competition of the season, the German duo was not on the podium for the first time. Wellinger took part in all three competitions – but always with a different partner. For Paschke it was the premiere in the future Olympic format. For the veteran, the nomination was already a success. “It’s cool that I was there, things have been a bit difficult for me in the last few weeks. That was a day that was important for me,” said Paschke, who was still not entirely satisfied: “Unfortunately, I had a bit of a problem in the first round leave something behind.”
Competition shortened due to wind
In fact, the podium was already far away at halftime: Paschke (206.5 m) dropped a lot of points compared to Wellinger (230.5 m), which resulted in sixth place among the twelve teams after the first round. After the break, neither Paschke (223.5 m) nor Wellinger (206.5 m) made up any ground. Zajc and Prevc, on the other hand, were in a class of their own; with 884.5 points, the Slovenians were clearly ahead of Johan Andre Forfang and Kristoffer Eriksen Sundal (861.3). Ski flying world champion Stefan Kraft and Michael Hayböck (855.7) completed the podium.
The competition took place in only two rounds instead of the usual three, as the two training sessions that had been canceled on Thursday were rescheduled at midday. According to the regulations of the world association FIS, a jumper is not allowed to make more than four jumps per day on a flying hill. The super team format, in which each country only has two participants, will replace the team competition with four starters per nation at the 2026 Olympics.
It continues in Oberstdorf on Saturday and Sunday (4 p.m./ARD and Eurosport) with two individual competitions. Then Karl Geiger, Philipp Raimund and Co. are back at the start, who were only there as spectators on Friday after moderate jumps in training.