podcast
Ski jumper Markus Eisenbichler often wears his heart on his tongue. At “Pizza & Fries” he talks to Felix Neureuther about his rediscovered passion for ski jumping and where he almost emigrated.
Last season, ski jumper Markus Eisenbichler was suddenly out of the World Cup team for an entire winter – the six-time world champion missed the prestigious Four Hills Tournament for the first time since 2012. In the current World Cup winter, Germany’s most successful ski jumper in World Cup history is back in the game.
“Last year, when things were going really shitty, I also thought to myself: ‘Why am I still doing this to myself?” he says in the BR24Sport podcast “Pizza & Fries”. But “then you go back up onto the hill, jump once and then you think to yourself: ‘It wasn’t good yet’, but somewhere it’s doing something to you. It won’t let you go.” In such moments, the “Eisei”, as many call him, can understand the ski jumping oldies Noriaki Kasai (JPN) and Simon Ammann (SUI), “because ski jumping simply captivates them. It takes you along and will never let you go.” .
Medals or achievements do not protect you from a low point
An athlete’s life, like that of Markus Eisenbichler, is of course accompanied by emotional ups and downs. You learn to “deal with setbacks and grow with them,” says the 33-year-old. Even if you have “medals and successes and stuff like that” on your side, you only realize “whether you’re really an athlete or not when things really go south.” Because the medals or successes “don’t protect you from reaching a low point in your career. That’s why the world doesn’t end, but there are things that are also beautiful.”
Eisenbichler: “You have to celebrate the small successes sometimes”
In the tough times, the Upper Bavarian also “always got help when I was younger. That was really good. But I’m that kind of person, I like to work it out for myself, reflect, talk to my friends and my family.” .
In order to reflect on the past season, in which he had to compete in the second-tier Continental Cup, Eisenbichler took a break in Norway after the competition ended. The 33-year-old went on a ski tour with friends to “gather strength for the next season”. For Eisenbichler, the Nordic country is also a place of longing: “I personally love Norway because it’s just such a vast space.” And after the ski tours he “would have preferred to stay at the top”.
But Eisenbichler isn’t finished ski jumping yet. The Upper Bavarian fought his way back into the World Cup team and at the first stages of the winter he was again able to record small successes with placements in the top group. “A year ago I was completely different. I was eliminated from the COC, and now I’ve scored World Cup points again. I achieved a top ten placement, you have to celebrate the little successes sometimes.”
If you no longer have passion, then you can stop
Even if things are only improving in small steps, the six-time world champion isn’t thinking about quitting yet: “The passion, if you don’t have it anymore, then you can stop. But I still have it because I said I would like to Jump again in the World Cup, win and go ski flying.”
The goal is also clear with the Nordic World Ski Championships in Trondheim in 2025. “I really want to go to the World Championships in Trondheim because that’s just Nordic skiing in Norway. I think it’s going to be super awesome.”
And then there are the Olympic Games in Cortina d’Ampezzo and Milan in 2026. Eisenbichler wants to “just keep looking, maybe do Cortina. But I’ll decide that next year, I’ll see how it goes this year too.”
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