Daniel Tschofenig surprises the ski jumping veterans

It was the point at which Daniel Tschofenig could no longer do anything. The brightly lit run-out of the Bischofshofener Schanze was now the focus of this difficult and unpredictable sport. Everyone was waiting, everyone, especially Daniel Tschofenig.

At the top of this 73rd Four Hills Tournament, Stefan Kraft was the last jumper, and below Tschofenig was waiting as the leader in the same box where the leaders in ski jumping also wait. And every time the director put his sights on him, he played along obediently. Now he made this grimace, now that; sometimes he hinted at a shiver; then his gestures said that those up there should hurry up – and he smiled. Finally, he shrugged, tilted his head, and smiled half-fearfully, half-innocently, as if this were a movie Oscar ceremony.

But it still took a while, because the young Tschofenig from Villach in Carinthia, who had initially learned the sport in the SV Achomitz/SD Zahomc club, had one last opponent. And Stefan Kraft is someone who has hung himself with the greatest achievements in recent years, Olympic champion with the team, world champion, overall World Cup winner, winner of the Four Hills Tournament 2014/15. The jury wanted to take it very seriously, waited a little too long – and produced a short film that could be used in the future for jury trainers to explain how not to do it right.

Stefan Kraft lost a lot of his body feeling in sub-zero temperatures

At least Tschofenig was warming himself downstairs in an anorak. Above, in sub-zero temperatures, his compatriot Kraft lost much of his physical feeling, which a ski jumper particularly needs. The absurd end of this 73rd Four Hills Tournament: Kraft, the big favorite, jumped clearly too short, only came third overall and drove past everyone waiting in the run-out. Then he knelt down and stared at the snow, preferring to keep to himself.

What are you supposed to do if you suddenly win the overall tour, especially at the age of 22? And that at the expense of the 31-year-old teammate, who is now further away from his second tour victory after the triumph exactly ten years ago; also because the competition management miscalculated? Can you still jump up in the snow in the Leaders Box, cheer and celebrate?

Naturally.

Daniel Tschofenig may still be young, but he has self-confidence like most older jumpers who otherwise wouldn’t be able to practice their sport. So he was celebrated for his fabulous jump of 140.5 meters, although he had also been lucky beforehand. His teammate Jan Hörl, who at 26 has a little more experience, cleared the way for Tschofenig with a mistake. Hörl had exaggerated his flight somewhat and landed at 143 meters, where the landing pressure is particularly high. Instead of a clean telemark, he performed what looked like someone had hit him from behind. Hörl analyzed: “I missed the landing.”

This sometimes childlike ski jumper is also a clever athlete

But don’t the best people, especially in a sport like ski jumping, always have a bit of luck? It is crucial that a young jumper can do both: solid learning and the joy of flying. His coach, the Austrian Andreas Widhölzl, himself a former Olympic ski jumping champion, world champion and tour winner, is certainly enthusiastic: “Tschofi is a crazy fighter.” But that’s not enough, because all sports, including ski jumping, require a theoretical system , which even the best students can use as a guide. Tschofenig is not yet at the age where he prefers to do nonsense or show his enthusiasm by screaming and celebrating uninhibitedly when he has just won the Four Hills Tournament. And yet this sometimes childlike ski jumper is a clever athlete.

Even as a young jumper, he understood that you should listen to your coaches. For example, when they explain to you what is one of the most important, perhaps even the most important, movements in this sport, namely the jump. Many movements have to come together almost simultaneously and exactly in the right place on the take-off table, just a few centimeters long – not controlled by the head, but by the body, subconsciously. The images of Tschofenig’s jump show a height that only a few can reach without losing speed. “You can use Tschofenig’s video as a technical model,” says Widhölzl. Tschofenig thinks: “It’s cool when you know you have everything together.”

Ski jumping is a sport in which the coach has a particularly difficult time if the student does not participate. Coaches need feedback from their jumper, otherwise they cannot coach him accurately. And ski jumping is very individual. Coaches and jumpers sometimes speak their own language when rehearsing the different phases of the air journey over the jump. Andreas Widhölzl recently said that Tschofenig, his young jumper, was “extremely ambitious” but also “extremely professional for his age”. You have to deal with him more because he has a lot of questions.

A ski jumping career is a long journey, and 22-year-old Tschofenig has long since set off with his belongings. Now he also has a Golden Eagle in his luggage, one of the biggest trophies in his sport.