A good ski jumper from Turkey? Fatih Arda İpcioğlu surprised many fans at the start of the tour when he sensationally collected World Cup points. He sparked a hype in his home country. But that should only be the beginning.
Fatih Arda İpcioğlu exudes the lightness of being these days. The 24-year-old ski jumper seems to be floating on cloud nine after being the first Turkish ever to reach the finals at the start of the Four Hills Tournament in Oberstdorf and surprisingly collecting two World Cup points as 29th.
“I’m really happy to have made history,” İpcioğlu told t-online on the sidelines Qualification for the second tournament jumping in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
The broad grin can be seen on the “Turkish Flyer”, as it is called in its homeland, under the large white mask and black helmet with a golden Turkish crescent moon. Because also on the Olympic hill he easily managed the qualification for the traditional New Year’s jumping on Friday with 123.5 meters in 53rd place (Saturday, from 2 p.m. in the t-online live ticker). He had never done that before.
Fatih Arda İpcioğlu is a sought-after interviewee these days. He doesn’t remember exactly how many interviews he gave during the Four Hills Tournament. (Source: Alexander Kohne / t-online)
Compared to the top stars from Germany or Austria, this 53rd place or 29th place doesn’t sound particularly newsworthy at the beginning. However, İpcioğlu also has completely different requirements. It comes from the Turkish winter sports center Erzurum in Eastern Anatolia, which is located at around 1,500 meters. There is a winter sports base with ski jumps and ice hockey rinks. However, İpcioğlu’s training in Erzurum is not necessarily comparable with German standards.
The special training concept
The hill there is not prepared. That is why he only has around 460 jumps in the whole year. That’s how many jumpers from Germany, Austria or Poland complete in summer alone. But since Frank Nejc is the new coach of the Turkish team, a lot has happened. “We train on average for 40 to 50 days in Slovenia, then the boys go back home. They can only do athletic training there,” said Nejc, who previously worked as assistant coach for the Slovenes for nine years, told the newspaper “Die Welt” “.
And this concept apparently works particularly well with İpcioğlu. That doesn’t seem to stay bent at home either – especially after its historical result in Oberstdorf. The student teacher no longer counts how many interviews he has given in the past three days. He just says with a smile: “There were really a lot.”
Media hype in Turkey
And İpcioğlu clearly enjoys this attention. “The media hype is great. Because in the last few years hardly anyone has noticed that we Turks are jumping at all,” he explains to t-online. “The attention now makes me happy and motivates me – also because we can explain Turkish culture and Turkish winter sports.” He doesn’t find it stressful at all during the actually most strenuous days of the ski jumping year.
And that is hardly surprising. Because although İpcioğlu is the best-known winter sportsman in his country and was even the flag bearer at the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, ski jumping has a niche existence in Turkey. “We don’t have a ski jumping culture like Germany or Poland, for example,” he openly admits. Sponsors don’t really stand in line. And while the top nations only have four jump suits for the Four Hills Tournament, student İpcioğlu, who is currently writing his master’s thesis, has to make it through the entire season.
Fatih Arda İpcioğlu also managed to qualify for the main competition in Garmisch-Partenkirchen without any problems. (Source: Ulrich Wagner / imago images)
But that could soon change “I don’t know exactly how many people in Turkey watch ski jumping on TV, but almost 500,000 people saw my jump on Tuesday in Oberstdorf on my Twitter profile,” explains İpcioğlu.
But that’s not all. Have a training jump from September via the 24-year-old’s Instagram profile even followed 15 million. “That shows: the people in Turkey are interested in ski jumping.”
His mother actually didn’t want İpcioğlu to start ski jumping when the enthusiastic skier discovered this sport at the age of 13.
“My mother said: ‘Don’t go there, you can’t do that, it’s way too dangerous.’” She shouldn’t be wrong, because seven years ago her son broke both legs in training.
Both legs broken during training
Today İpcioğlu does not seem to attach any great importance to these horror injuries. “It’s like this: if you get up and carry on, anything is possible. If you lie down, it’s over. I got up.”
This attitude could lead him even higher in the World Cup – at least according to his coach: “Everything is possible. We still have a lot of work to do, but he has all the physical prerequisites,” said Nejc.
And İpcioğlu himself has his own expectations. With regard to a top 10 placement, he says: “I trust myself to surprise everyone.” If his mother has his way, it shouldn’t end there. She’s already dreaming of jumping on the podium. She would certainly not have imagined eleven years ago that she would wish for something like that.
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