Sunday 19th December 2021
Winter sports stagger towards the Olympics
Biathletes are looking for top form, Geigers have it
The Olympic Winter Games in Beijing start in just over six weeks. Despite many discussions, they are the goal for most German top athletes. While bobsleigh pilot Friedrich is almost permanently in top form and two Geigers are proving their class, others have to worry about a start.
Ski jumping: The Four Hills Tournament can come for Karl Geiger! The currently best German ski jumper won on Saturday in Engelberg ahead of Ryoyu Kobayashi and the next day came second behind the strong Japanese. As the leader in the overall World Cup, Geiger is allowed to wear the coveted yellow jersey at the start of the tour in his home town of Oberstdorf. “That is what you always work towards: That you can be the last to sit up there,” said Geiger in Engelberg. In the qualification on December 28th, he is the last jumper in front of a familiar crowd. Geiger has been very consistent so far this winter and is one of the top favorites to win the tour.
Biathlon: The biathletes celebrated a good 20,000 spectators in the Corona high-risk area France. The German team managed a somewhat conciliatory end to the year at the weekend with the first two World Cup victories for Swede Elvira Öberg and the home successes of Quentin Fillon Maillet and Emilien Jacquelin in pursuit and mass start. In Le Grand-Bornand, Hochfilzen winner Johannes Kühn was sixth in the mass start. The two ex-world champions Benedikt Doll and Erik Lesser reported back as seventh in the mass start and tenth in the pursuit with their best results of the season. In the women’s team, on the other hand, there are big problems instead of front seats.
Nordic combination: He wins and wins and wins. Norway’s outstanding combiner Jarl Magnus Riiber is unstoppable this winter. In the eighth race, the 24-year-old took his seventh victory – in the only race he did not win, he was disqualified beforehand. Riiber took his 43rd individual victory, drawing level with the German Eric Frenzel, who was third. Vinzenz Geiger was also second on the podium. Riiber is only five more victories short of Hannu Manninen’s record from Finland.
Alpine skiing: Simon Jocher significantly improved the German balance sheet on the legendary Saslong in Val Gardena. With 15th place in the Super-G and eighth in the downhill, the Upper Bavarian qualified for his first Olympic Games. Team mate Josef Ferstl also bought the Beijing ticket when Aleksander Aamodt Kilde (Super-G) and Bryce Bennett (Downhill) won. The hopefuls Romed Baumann and Andreas Sander both ended up outside the top ten. Kira Weidle finished 39th and 16th in the speed competitions in Val d’Isere. The victory went twice to Italy’s ski queen Sofia Goggia. It was similarly disappointing in Alta Badia for Alexander Schmid, who did not make it into the second round in the giant slalom.
Bob: Francesco Friedrich said goodbye to the year with a World Cup double. The double Olympic champion from BSC Oberbärenburg won the four-man bobsleigh race in Altenberg on Sunday, after having also won the small sled the day before. Christoph Hafer from BC Bad Feilnbach came in ninth after second place in the two-man bobsleigh this time. Kim Kalicki won the two-man bobsleigh World Cup ahead of Olympic champion Mariama Jamanka. Kalicki, who drove with pusher Lisa Buckwitz for the first time this winter, prevailed on Sunday with two fastest times. At the Monobob World Cup on Saturday, Laura Nolte from Winterberg came fourth ahead of Kalicki, Jamanka was seventh. The Canadian Christine de Bruin secured the victory.
Tobogganing: Halfway through the World Cup series in the Olympic season, the German luge team can look forward to the Winter Games in Beijing with confidence. Johannes Ludwig in the men and Julia Taubitz in the women defended the lead in the overall World Cup with their two victories against strong competition from Austria. Ludwig was also third in the sprint, Taubitz second. Only the doubles went away empty-handed at the World Cup, but the Thuringian world champions Toni Eggert / Sascha Benecken won the sprint race on Sunday and defended second place in the overall standings. After the Christmas break, the tobogganists start the second World Cup series on New Year’s Day.
Cross-country skiing: The sprint dominance of Swedish cross-country skiers continues. Maja Dahlqvist and Jonna Sundling won the team sprint in Dresden on Sunday. The two outstanding sprinters of the weekend prevailed in the free technique competition on the banks of the Elbe, ahead of the Americans Jessie Diggins and Julia Kern and the Slovenian duo Eva Urevc and Anamarija Lampic. Dalhqvist and Sundling had already been strong in the individual sprint on Saturday and had finished first and second. The German duo Laura Gimmler and Sofie Krehl finished in ninth place, around 24 seconds behind in third place. Also on Saturday in the singles and in the men, the Germans had nothing to do with the fight for the podium places.