The Four Hills Tournament has so far been a total debacle for the Polish ski jumping team. In the overall ranking, the best athlete is only in eleventh place at halftime. There are already calls at home for coach Thomas Thurnbichler to be replaced. His successor is theoretically already ready: Alexander Stöckl.
If you want to find the Polish ski jumpers in the overall ranking of the Four Hills Tournament, you have to look for a long time these days. Pawel Wasek, in eleventh place, is still part of the extended top team. But Jakub Wolny, Aleksander Zniszczol and Dawid Kubacki are miles behind and only occupy places 30, 46 and 56 in the ranking. Without any ifs or buts, a debacle for the proud ski jumping nation.
There is great anger at home about the disappointing results. In his “Wirtualna Polska” column, ski jumping expert Szymon Lozynski is already calling for consequences and the dismissal of coach Thomas Thurnbichler.
Ski jumping stars have “no trust” in the coach
“The Poles have problems because the coaches do not have a coherent vision for the jumps. The jumpers are talking about it more and more loudly. It is becoming more and more apparent that there is no trust in the coach,” wrote the expert, who believes that the Polish athletes View Turnbichler more as a colleague and not as a head coach. “Under Stefan Horngacher, who led the team with an iron hand, something like this would have been unthinkable.”
“The young Austrian has not been able to lead the team out of the crisis for over a year, and he won’t be able to do so in the next few weeks either. He won’t be able to do it because the athletes don’t trust him and he has no authority “, said the journalist, who has already shown a solution to the problem.
Stöckl on criticism: “It’s tiring”
“A change of coach could help the team. A coach with authority and experience is needed. We don’t have to look far for that. Alexander Stöckl is the sports director. He is an exceptional coach who has celebrated many successes with the Norwegian team. In his current position “It’s wasted,” Lozynski suggested to the Polish association that Stöckl should be transferred to the coaching position.
For Stöckl himself, however, such a personnel castling is out of the question. The Austrian assured “Dagbladet” that he had full confidence in Thurnbichler. At the same time, he complained about the criticism from home, which many major media outlets had already voiced. “It’s tiring and doesn’t make it any easier to show performance,” said Stöckl, who also explained that many things were written that were “not true.”