At the Winter Olympics in Beijing, the German ski jumping quartet Markus Eisenbichler, Stefan Leyhe, Karl Geiger and Constantin Schmid won bronze; four years earlier, Geiger and Leyhe even won silver alongside Andreas Wellinger and Richard Freitag. In the meantime, Eisenbichler, Leyhe and Freitag have hung up their jumpsuit, and of the remaining trio, Geiger is the oldest DSV athlete at 32 years old. Now the five-time world champion has spoken, among other things, about a possible end to his career.
The last two winters have at least not been ideal for Karl Geiger; the top German jumper celebrated his last World Cup victory in December 2023, but as 13th in the overall ranking last season, Geiger also proved that the world elite is by no means out of his reach. So it’s no wonder that Geiger doesn’t yet have the topic of ending his career very prominently on his agenda.
“I’ve reached a certain age, but I’m physically in top shape and believe that I’m still capable of jumping to the top. I’m now fully concentrating on the season,” explained Geiger in an interview with “Eurosport”.
The aim is to perform “as best as possible” with the many highlights that winter offers.
The season begins in Lillehammer on November 22nd, the Four Hills Tournament takes place at the end of December, the Ski Flying World Championships are scheduled for the end of January and the fight for Olympic medals takes place in February.
“Serving the sentence in the summer is not a real punishment”
How great Geiger’s chances are of adding another milestone to his impressive career cannot yet be predicted. “It doesn’t fit yet, the individual building blocks don’t yet come together to form an overall picture,” says the Oberstdorfer, outlining his current situation and emphasizing that he is thinking from “jump to leap”.
Geiger also commented on the Norwegian suit scandal at the last World Cup.
“Serving the punishment in the summer is not a real punishment. You also don’t know to what extent the athletes were involved and knew about the cheating. I’ll leave my judgment on that aside,” says the German cautiously. However, the now suspended coach Magnus Breivik recently criticized the FIS because of his punishment. Geiger cannot leave it like that: “I don’t need to put much value on the word of someone who actively cheated,” Geiger clarifies and demands: “The possibility of cheating must be stopped “We need to have the confidence that all athletes have the same opportunities.”