After strong performances recently, the German ski jumpers crash at the start of the Olympics. This causes confusion in the team. Karl Geiger in particular is unfamiliar with the hill – and struggles with gravity.
When Karl Geiger made his second jump in the snow of the Zhangjiakou Olympic Ski Jumping Stadium, he already knew that the medal he was hoping for would not come off. The 28-year-old slides into the run-out area in a routine – yes, emotionless – way, waves at the camera somewhere between shy and annoyed, and then stomps away on his heels in typical ski jumping fashion.
This symbolizes the performance of the German ski jumpers at their Olympic opener on the small hill: Geiger, who is currently first in the World Cup, finished 15th. Constantin Schmid was 11th and Stephan Leyhe 24th. Markus Eisenbichler was 31st and even missed the second round.
“Don’t let me down”
A more than mixed team result for the DSV-Adler, who traveled to China with great ambitions. The search for the cause of this is still ongoing. “The motivation was there, the will was there. I put everything on one card, hammered through with full determination and hoped that it would work. Last year at the home World Cup it worked – not this time,” was Geiger’s explanation.
Eisenbichler took a similar stance: “Olympics or World Championships, I think to myself, either I’ll get a medal or I’ll be fifth or twenty-first. That’s how you have to go in. It didn’t work, but I won’t let it get me down.”
During the training sessions over the past few days, it had already become apparent that Geiger and Co. weren’t really warming up to the new high-tech facility in Zhangjiakou. “Unfortunately, it was foreseeable, a miracle should have happened. We didn’t get along so well with the hill,” stated national coach Stefan Horngacher, who had already reported on ZDF before the competition that Geiger had a “bad feeling”.
Difficult conditions for the German top jumpers
One explanation for the poor performance of the two top jumpers Geiger and Eisenbichler are the difficult conditions in the first round. Just in time for the appearance of the top 10 in the World Cup, the wind blew more and more unpredictably over the facility, which not only caused problems for the top German duo. However, the later Olympic champion Ryoyu Kobayashi was not influenced by this and took the lead at half-time with 104.5 meters and spotless telemark. Geiger (96 meters) and Eisenbichler (92 meters) had already given up all chances of top results.
As an excuse, Geiger didn’t want to accept the difficult conditions: “We don’t know why, that’s the bitter thing. We just didn’t get going,” said the man from Oberstdorf a little helplessly. He had calculated a few things on the small hill. And also Ski jumping legend Martin Schmitt made Geiger his favorite in an interview with t-online.
Geiger was not able to fulfill these expectations at all. “It didn’t grab me. It’s like a magnet on the slope, then you land,” said the man from the Allgäu, who also described the hill as a “little beast”.
But in less than 24 hours, the German team already has the chance to defy the special forces of attraction described by Geiger. Then the mixed team competition (from 12.45 p.m. in the t-online live ticker) is all about medals again – and even after the strong performance of the German women with the silver medal from Katharina Althaus the day before, the DSV team is one of the favourites.
t-online shows you the best scenes and most emotional moments from the 2022 Olympics in Beijing Video.