Will national coach Stefan Horngacher still reach his ski jumpers? DSV sports director Horst Hüttel says: yes – and that despite the extremely mediocre German results at the 74th Four Hills Tournament.
Hüttel made it clear on the “ARD” microphone after the last competition of the tour in Bischofshofen that he “didn’t want to break the baton” about national coach Stefan Horngacher and his team. “You can still reach the athletes. You just don’t get the output you want. Then it’s not easy and it’s tedious.”
Hüttel admitted: “The end of the tour was a bit unfortunate for us. We still wanted to fight for the podium.” But he also emphasized: “The season continues, with the highlights of the Ski Flying World Championships and the Olympics.”
Horngacher, who is stepping down from office at the end of the winter, has “always come up with good things to offer a high level of highlights in recent years. That will be the challenge in the next two or three weeks.”
The problems in German ski jumping are “multi-layered,” Hüttel continued. “The fact is that we have not managed to replace people like Markus Eisenbichler or Stephan Leyhe. We will continue to work on that.”
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The example of late starter Felix Hoffmann, the best German on the previous tour, shows “that this is possible,” added the DSV official.
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Hüttel admitted that more was expected from Andreas Wellinger and Karl Geiger this winter. “Andi won the Raw Air Tour last season,” he referred to past successes in this context. But: “If the form isn’t right, it’s very difficult to turn the lever on the tour in the ten days.”
Horngacher’s successor must “also have an overall systemic effect, bring people up to the top in order to restore the potential of ski jumping in Germany to the way we already had it,” said Hüttel. “In the last two or three years we have lost some substance.”
The German ski jumping boss added: “We have always managed to get people to the top. But you have to question why development didn’t continue continuously.”