The German ski jumper Karl Geiger looks back on the challenging Four Hills Tournament in his column for sport.de. The five-time world champion is now starting to reset.
The preliminary performances of the season had made me one of the favorites for the Four Hills Tournament. Two World Cup victories in Klingenthal and several top 5 placements have raised expectations, including my own. Then, as in the life of a ski jumper, things turned out differently.
Although I went into the opening competition in Oberstdorf with a lot of euphoria and confidence, I already noticed on the home hill that I was a long way away from the top. A fourth place after the first round, a 7th place in the final results of the first competition.
The ski jumps in Garmisch and Innsbruck then presented me with real problems. Things weren’t going well anymore. Every jump had its own error, which prevented the distance – the distance from being able to intervene at the front. During the tour, I thought intensively about myself and my jumping system. In the past, I have repeatedly managed to make corrections and get back on track in short periods of time. This time the hoped-for turnaround did not materialize. The results in Bischofshofen were again pointing in the right direction, but were still a long way from the desired results.
This time the golden eagle flew in a different direction. Kobayashi was the deserving winner; He deserves recognition, just like Andreas Wellinger, who jumped a great tour, but also had to acknowledge that the Japanese, with an admirable cold-snout, hardly made any mistakes. I internally accepted the course of the tour and made peace with it. The season is still long and we have to look forward.
Oberstdorf in the snow – I’m happy to now have a few days of rest at home, to collect myself mentally and to carry out a technical reset in training on the home hills, to rebuild things from the ground up, to regain a self-image for the correct processes, to achieve stability receive. After the Four Hills Tournament comes a Three Hills Tournament. The Poles are hosting four competitions on three ski jumps, which I think makes sense from a time-saving and ecological perspective. The competitions are completed one after the other, a similar challenge for the jumpers as in the Four Hills Tournament.
I will now work in peace, prepare well for the next stage and see that I can turn things around again and build on the successes at the start of the season. Oberstdorf, Garmisch, Innsbruck and Bischofshofen are behind me this season. The new tasks are pending; they need to be addressed.
Best regards
Karl Geiger