“Right Way” in Lake Placid
DSV-Adler Wellinger optimistic despite the dry spell
09.02.2025 – 6:18 p.m.Reading time: 2 min.
The German ski jumpers did not make it to the podium in Lake Placid. Nevertheless, Andreas Wellinger was combative.
The German ski jumper took a little step out of their sporting crisis in Lake Placid in the USA. Andreas Wellinger took eleventh place in the World Cup jumping on Sunday as the best DSV athlete, just ahead of Karl Geiger, who became twelfth. The Austrian Daniel Tschofenig secured the victory, while the team of national coach Stefan Horngacher remained in series without a place in the top ten for the fifth time – not an optimal starting point two and a half weeks before the World Cup.
Andreas Wellinger said to his eleventh place in ARD: “The wait was not the problem now. Rather when you see that the bonds are not so good. Wherever the tailwind comes from at the ski jump table, the whole ski jump changes. I am satisfied with the jumps.
Wellinger added: “It would have been nice if more had jumped out with it.” Already on Saturday the two -time Olympic champion with 16th place was the best German.
Behind the outstanding Tschofenig, who celebrated his eighth win of the season at 127.0 and 132.5 meters, his compatriot Jan Hörl and the Slovenian Anze Lanisek completed the podium. The German jumper, on the other hand, are still waiting for a sense of achievement: no athlete has managed to jump on the podium for 13 individual competitions. There was a similarly long dry spell in the winter of 2007/08.
In Lake Placid, the DSV eagles also had to do without the five-time winner of the season Pius Paschke. Stephan Leyhe (26th) and Philipp Raimund (28th) made it into the second round, while Felix Hoffmann was already over after the first round.
On Saturday, the German jumpers had had to accept their weak result on a large hill for over 14 years with placements outside of the top 20 – only Wellinger made it into the front ranks as 16th. A few hours later, however, Wellinger, Philipp Raimund, Selina Freitag and Agnes Reisch in the mixed competition ensured a ray of hope and surprisingly won the victory in the last team competition in front of the World Cup.