Why an Olympic champion no longer wears a jersey for the ÖSV in the World Cup

In Austria, however, Daniel Huber and Manuel Fettner are currently experiencing rough wind Because in the World Cup team, the two Team Olympic Champion von Peking 2022 no place. “Unfortunately, we only have five starting places left in the World Cup. My hands are tied. I constantly have to leave people at home who have already won and can jump right in at the front,” says a contrite ÖSV head coach Andreas Widhölzl.

The Tyrolean Success Coachwho has had air supremacy with his team in ski jumping for some time and won the Nations Cup twice in a row, has already focused on his quintet which will start the new World Cup season on 22 November in Lillehammer: Overall World Cup winner Stefan Kraft, Jan Hoerl (4th in the World Cup), Michael Hayböck (6.), Daniel Tschofenig (11.) and the 18-year-old Stephan Embacher who secured a starting place as Junior World Champion.

Manuel Fettner and Daniel Huber, who would be seeded in any other nation, are left out in the cold and have to stay on the ground. This is already hard for the experienced Fettner, who finished twelfth in the World Cup. But it is particularly bitter for Daniel Huber, who won two competitions at the end of last season and small crystal ball for the Ski Flying World Cup.

One small back door There are still some in the World Cup: In Kontinentalcup the second level of performance, three additional World Cup starting places will be awarded in the summer. These will go to the three nations whose jumpers land on the podium in the overall ranking.

The two Austrian Olympic champions now also want to take this detour at the competitions this weekend in Trondheim Huber and Fettner are also in action. The biggest competition, of course, comes from within their own camp. Clemens Aigner another jumper that other nations would gladly accept, has won the first two competitions and is in a commanding lead. The question remains whether Huber and Fettner are even capable of overtaking the Tyrolean. Head coach Widhölzl makes it clear: “We absolutely need this quota place. And the jumper who gets it will then also start in the World Cup. Even if it will be hard for others.”

They are true Luxury problems which plague Widhölzl. He is spoiled for choice, while elsewhere it is more of a choice of agony. In the ÖSV ski team, the coaches would have been Home World Championships in Saalbach-Hinterglemm happy if they had to leave Olympic champions at home.