At the 3rd edition of the European Games in Kraków and Lesser Poland, ski jumping was part of the program for the first time. How the German athletes competed in the premiere and what homework they want to do before winter.
Ski jumping at the end of June is no longer unusual for the athletes themselves, but it is at the European Games. At the request of the hosts in Kraków and Lesser Poland, the discipline was part of the program for the first time.
But in addition to classic summer sports such as canoeing, athletics and fencing, the competitions in Zakopane seemed like a foreign body.
But at least the fields of participants were appealing, especially considering the fact that the teams had only started jumping training again a month ago, after the weight room had previously determined everyday life.
Women’s national coach Maximilian Mechler stated beforehand that “we wouldn’t rate the results too highly”, although his team arrived with the best players.
With Selina Freitag, a DSV jumper even won a medal, so Mechler consequently attested her the best early form: “She did it very well, was able to build on her training performance and was rewarded with a medal.”
DSV jumpers still have reserves in flight
Friday’s bronze medal on the large hill is particularly special because “that was our first large hill jump in the summer,” as the national coach put it.
It is precisely those large hills that make up about half of all competitions in the women’s World Cup and are therefore just as important in training work. There, the jump, the parade discipline of the German jumpers, plays a subordinate role, so it’s all about flying skills.
In this area, the jumpers behind Schmid and Freitag still have reserves and also name them. Anna Rupprecht already recognized during the conversation at the premiere of ski flying in March sport.de: “I just don’t have enough flying quality. It’s just not much fun on the big hills.”
And it also earns fewer points: Last winter, the SC Degenfeld jumper scored an average of 18 World Cup points per competition on normal hills (corresponds to the points for 14th place), on large hills it was only 11 (ranked 20th). The same happened to her teammates Pauline Hessler and Luisa Görlich.
Selina Freitag is a wonderful example of how Mechler and his assistant Thomas Juffinger can literally give a jumper wings within one summer: If she only collected six points on average on large hills in the 2021/2022 season, she was able to do so Six times the value of last season – and made it into the top of the world.
In the summers in between, she learned to make her flight more aggressive and significantly reduce the angle between ski and body by giving her more runs than usual in training and letting her jump off the jumps.
Katharina Schmid (nee Althaus) found her way back to her old strength under the new coaching team, only her consistency can still be improved. This was also evident in Zakopane, when she only showed one strong jump in both individual competitions and therefore did not end up in the top ten.
DSV jumpers have to master the change quickly – also next to the hill
However, the woman from Oberstdorf is not alone in the fact that the changeover to different hills is not easy for her. Exactly this phenomenon ran like a red thread through almost the entire men’s team in the last two seasons.
Also in the jumping in Zakopane, where two jumpers from last year’s World Cup team, Philipp Raimund and Constantin Schmid, competed, it was noticeable that only the last competition jump was the best.
The laudable exception was Raimund, who missed the medal by one point on the normal hill, but was able to secure it with bronze on the large hill.
For the 23-year-old, the medal is a nice indication that the path he has taken is the right one. For the man from Oberstdorf and his teammates, it was primarily about gaining experience and “getting a taste of Olympic air”, as national coach Stefan Horngacher put it.
“The established athletes”, as Horngacher likes to call his stars Karl Geiger, Andreas Wellinger and Markus Eisenbichler, “continue to pursue their base training. Eisenbichler is also currently busy with his training with the federal police.”
The DSV jumpers and their opponents will now also be concerned with the new regulations, which include many changes in the material area.
Felix Hoffmann, who was also at the start in Zakopane, explained opposite sport.de: “The European Games were the last competitions with old material. Now we are focusing on the new, where many details are different: in the suit cut, on the shoe and also on the wedge in the shoe. We have already done a few units with it and it feels definitely feel different.”
Similar to Formula 1, a material trick can bring decisive advantages in ski jumping, so it is important for the DSV technicians and scientists to get the best out of the suit.
This is what the timetable looks like until the World Cup winter
The final endurance test before the start of the World Cup will then be the Summer Grand Prix final on October 7th and 8th in Klingenthal, where the team will compete with the best of both sexes. The jumping in the Vogtland Arena is a point of reference for the national coaches to allocate tickets for the World Cup. The final decision will not be made until after the German Championships at the end of October.
At the previous stations in Courchevel (France) and Szczyrk (Poland) a B-team will most likely be at the start, the jumping in Rasnov (Romania) will probably not be manned at all. Only on the normal hill in Hinzenbach (Austria) will Wellinger, Geiger and Co. face the competition for the first time.
Horngacher is then also required to keep the team happy across the board. In the past few seasons, he stuck to experienced jumpers even when there were visible performance deficits, making it extremely difficult for younger jumpers to get a place in the team.
This topic is now being exacerbated by the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS), which is deleting a starting place for the strongest nations in the coming season and giving it to smaller nations.
Hoffmann, who was promoted to Horngacher’s training group in the spring, stated in an interview sport.de: “Of course I would like to have a starting place in the World Cup now. The cut doesn’t make it any easier to get one. But I try to offer myself in training and in the competitions and then we’ll see if it’s enough.”
How carefully Hoffmann and Co. did their summer homework will only become apparent in the winter. And that under difficult conditions.
Luis Holuch