The four -time world champion stimulates: “You should take a close look at the material used overall, but also the landing itself.” Schmitt sees potential for improvement, especially in shoes and bonds: “Modern equipment has made the flight phase much more stable and safer, but the material is actually not made for landing.”
Why? “The shoes are already very stiff and are also reinforced with carbon shells,” says Schmitt, who is now an expert at Eurosport and is regularly live on the ski jump. “They are inclined to the front, and there are wedges in the shoe, which were already regulated a few years ago.” These were even thicker in the past, but still not ideal.
Schmitt emphasizes: “Nevertheless, the foot and leg position, with which an athlete is coming up, is still a risk situation, especially when it comes to telemar cland.”
There was a new rule before last season. The telemar clanding – in which a knee bends into the skiing of the ski in the bent position – got more weight again. Since then, jumping judges have been allowed to deduct three points in a unclean landing instead of before. At the time, ex-DSV eagle Markus Eisenbichler called the change “stupid”. Schmitt also emphasizes that the telemark was “without need” in the evaluation.
This upgrade helps to continue to occur, as described by Schmitt, as described by Schmitt. That means: “With almost all jumpers, even with very good landings, the knee bends in the bent position in order to achieve the angle necessary for the telemark,” explains the former crowd favorite.
According to Schmitt, this increases the risk of injury “significantly” if there is exceptional forces in this unnatural attitude – for example through a long jump, a high flight curve, a bump or twisting. “
Schmitt was in use for Germany for years and knows what these forces do with the body. In addition, the 47-year-old knows the pressure to deliver in the best possible way-of course in the sense of the best possible points, i.e. in the current case with Telemark. “The athlete is actually forced to this risk in an extreme situation as with very wide jumps. In my eyes, these aspects should also be taken into account in a security debate,” says Schmitt.