Four Hills Tournament: An eggnog for Team Austria

Pius Paschke had put on a good face for a long time. Even when it became clear that his brilliant early form wouldn’t last forever. Paschke won half of all ski jumping World Cups in November and December and achieved second and third places. After that, he slowly lost his form. Just in time for the Four Hills Tournament, another ski jumping phenomenon emerged: Team Austria.

Now this team – always the team with the most talent – has literally swept away the rest of those who still had hopes. Coach Andreas Widhölzl’s team seems to easily outdo the other ski jumpers; and no, this saddle strength is not just apparent, it is real.

Because Pius Paschke only jumped 128.5 and 123.5 meters – which is actually a strong performance – he still lost 23 points to the day’s winner Stefan Kraft. Those left at the top are two other Austrians, albeit much younger than Kraft. The 31-year-old and his Austrian pursuers Jan Hörl (26, second on the day) and Daniel Tschofenig (22, third on the day) will fight for the tour victory among themselves, although the exclusive strength of this trio can be measured with the meter stick. If you convert the points of the Innsbruck Stockerl trio into centimeters, the three are less than a meter apart. A nation occupying the entire podium after the event has only happened three times in 72 tour editions.

The German starters are currently finding it very difficult to jump

After all, Stefan Horngacher’s German team has a clear goal for the next few years, but it’s probably not that easy to implement. And yet it might be a possibility to at least stay connected to the Alpine republic. The prerequisite is improvements in running technique, fitness building, flying technique and all of these small but important factors such as a wedge in the shoe that fits down to the millimeter. Further development in German ski jumping is becoming increasingly important in the centers.

Paschke’s superiority was so great at the beginning of the season because the Austrians had taken a slower approach to building up over the winter. This is made particularly clear by Stefan Kraft, the ski jumper from Schwarzbach im Pongau, who appropriately now travels on with the title of two-time current tour stage winner 2024/2025; Kraft has already won the opening stage in Oberstdorf. As you can see, the jumper from Pongau still has a lot of strength in his legs despite some pain as an over-30 year old.

The example of Karl Geiger shows how difficult the daily work is currently for German ski jumpers. The Oberstdorfer had taken sixth place as the best DSV athlete in the New Year’s competition and sat in the leader’s soft chair in the leader box for what felt like half an hour. But the difficult and narrow jump on Bergisel had always caused problems for Geiger. Now he was eliminated after the first round after a jump of 124 meters and a weak landing. His teammates Felix Hoffmann and Adrian Tittel also only completed one jump. The second best German behind Paschke was Andreas Wellinger in 13th place, Philipp Raimund landed in 15th place.

The tour is still going on, qualification for the last stage in Bischofshofen begins on Sunday. But before that, the tour has to travel to the east of the country and Stefan Kraft has to give his team one. The overall leader announced: “We’re having a round of eggnog on the bus.”