“You crawl around for weeks”
Eisenbichler finally pulls himself together after the disaster
01/15/2023, 8:38 p.m
At the Four Hills Tournament, things are not going well for the German ski jumpers. A week later, the winter sports world looks a lot friendlier: In Zakopane, Markus Eisenbichler, after a strong performance in the team, also made a big leap forward in the individual.
Markus Eisenbichler cheered, he jumped in front of friends – and was stunned. “You bang around for weeks and then it’s so easy,” said the six-time ski jumping world champion after what was by far the best weekend of the World Cup winter. A week after the disastrous Four Hills Tournament, the Bavarian led the German team to third place in Zakopane, and now he finished sixth in the individual, his best result of the season.
Eisenbichler, who had missed the second round three times during the tour, expressly thanked a DSV technician after his strong performance. “He gave me a trick that worked, but it stays secret, I’ll take it to my grave,” said the 31-year-old with a grin.
While the Norwegian Halvor Egner Granerud triumphed in front of the Polish local hero Dawid Kubacki, as in the tour, Andreas Wellinger also impressed in eleventh place. The third best DSV eagle on the “Wielka Krokiew” was Karl Geiger in 14th place. The man from Oberstdorf initially failed in the wind lottery and had to work his way up from 24th place.
“A day like this is really good”
Geiger was nevertheless satisfied given the upswing in the German team. “That was a nice final jump. I’m happy that I can fly even with rough edges,” said the Olympic bronze medalist. Stefan Horngacher was also relieved. “We’re happy that we’ve caught up with the world’s best,” said the national coach. Stephan Leyhe (19th) and Constantin Schmid (22nd) also made it into the points, tour surprise Philipp Raimund (29th) avoided a fall with difficulty.
The team competition on Saturday, in which Eisenbichler had the longest flight of the day with 140.0 meters, had already illustrated the upward trend. Eisenbichler, Geiger, Wellinger and team debutant Raimund collected 1144.4 points in eight jumps. That was enough behind Austria (1151.5) and host Poland (1150.5), but above all clearly ahead of Olympic silver medalist Slovenia (1117.7) and Norway with Tournament winner Granerud (1113.4) for the podium.
“The second felt really cool,” said Eisenbichler. Geiger also showed himself to be greatly improved. “A day like today is really good,” said the man from Oberstdorf. During the tour, the German team had struggled almost continuously, but now the trend reversal could be done. “We tried to initiate a multitude of measures, the team did a great job. The lads implemented a few things here,” said Horngacher.