Austria dominance
Former German national coach speaks of “alarm mood”
January 8, 2025 – 10:27 amReading time: 2 minutes
Austria was the clear number one at the Four Hills Tournament. Other nations such as Norway, Poland and Germany were only hopeless pursuers.
Former national coach Werner Schuster has warned of the growing dominance of the Austrians in ski jumping. In an interview with Eurosport he said: “The other top nations are treading water a bit, while the Austrians have improved greatly through their structure and the dynamics in the team.” But that’s not the only reason: “They are also absolutely top-notch in terms of material and coordination. The association also works excellently. It wasn’t always like that, they had to fight their way out of a slump over the last seven or eight years. They have focused on the next generation and that is now paying off.”
With Daniel Tschofenig, who is only 22 years old, Jan Hörl, 26, and veteran Stefan Kraft (31), three Austrian jumpers from different ski jumping generations were at the top of the tour. With Maximilian Ortner and Markus Müller (both 22 years old), other talents were among the world’s best.
“If you look at the Junior World Championships, Austria has provided four of the last five world champions. Ski jumping is a national sport in Austria, so the system is fundamentally very stable,” explains Schuster and adds: “There is already a bit of international influence Alarm mood.”
Andreas Wellinger would probably agree with Schuster, at least with regard to the German team. Because the DSV eagle said after the disappointing tour: “This is an issue that the association has to think about. We need more young people who make life difficult for us older people from below. Then we also have to develop further. That push each other.”
Karl Geiger agreed with Wellinger: “We will hold the fort. But I hope that we will then be replaced by the young ones.” But time is of the essence, as sports director Horst Hüttel also noted. “It is clear to us that there will be a break after the 2026 Olympics, then jumpers will stop. We have to work hard to get young people into this position so that German ski jumping remains first-class.”