Even for an experienced ski jumper like Karl Geiger, new horizons are opening up with the upcoming World Cup opener in Wisła. In an exclusive interview with sport.de, he reveals how he finds the “Hybrid World Cup” on ice track and mats and the numerous innovations and changes.
The ski-jumping season starts this coming weekend as early and as special as never before.
This “Hybrid World Cup” is also something completely new for Germany’s flagship jumper Karl Geiger. In an interview with , he reveals how the overall World Cup runner-up from last season looks at the start of the season, which premieres await him and his fellow campaigners apart from the start and what he has personally planned sport.de.
Mr. Geiger, for you and your colleagues, the break between the summer and winter seasons is shorter than ever. How excited are you for the start of the World Cup in Wisła next weekend?
Karl Geiger: Even though the weather doesn’t exactly look like the start of the World Cup, I’m really looking forward to it. I’m looking forward to the completely new experience of approaching on an ice track and landing on a mat, which has never happened before. I would describe it as a pilot project in which you can see how it is received and whether it can perhaps even be optimized.
I’m curious to see how much is in my form right now and how this event is being received. And then you have another two weeks to analyze and adjust. With this interruption afterwards, you also have the opportunity to get out again, before it all happens one after the other. I’m excited to see how all of this works for me.
How satisfied are you with your current level of performance?
I’m satisfied with the preparation, things haven’t gone wrong in the last few weeks. I also have a good feeling as a team, we are very compact. Most recently at the Summer Grand Prix in Klingenthal and also at the German Championships, I noticed that my jumps aren’t quite where I want them to be, but they’re not out of the world either. It’s reassuring to know that you’re still doing well, even if things aren’t at 100 percent.
When this hybrid World Cup start in Wisla was scheduled, no one thought of an energy crisis, which has meanwhile become a reality. World Cups have already been canceled in alpine skiing, does this crisis also pose a threat to ski jumping?
Of course, that keeps you busy and is not an issue that you can shrug off. Also independent of sport, but also related to everyday life. For ski jumping, however, I see it as basically positive because we need relatively little snow. We have the landing slope and the outrun that need to be covered with snow. That’s a lot less than a ten-kilometre run or a three-kilometre descent with corresponding run-off zones.
I have a pretty good feeling that you could do it without snow. Whether that will happen remains to be seen. Of course, if it stays as warm as it was last time, it can sometimes be difficult for organizers to cope.
The winter calendar is packed with 32 individual and four team competitions, as well as two super team and mixed team competitions. What are you particularly looking forward to?
I’m really looking forward to the World Championships in Planica. I associate a lot of positive memories with the place from my ski flying world championship title in 2020. But I’m also happy because I’ve never jumped the World Cup hills in winter. So hopefully it will be the first winter competitions that I contest on these hills. That’s why I’m very curious about it.
Were you able to make jumps on the facilities at least in the summer and get a feel for them?
Up to this year I haven’t made a single jump there, even in summer (laughs). But at the course this summer I did a few isolated good jumps and managed it quite well. The track in summer is very peculiar there and I had some problems with it. But I’m curious to see how it goes in winter, because I’ve been told from several sides that it works differently than in summer.
The Super Team Format is one of many new features coming this winter. Many observers were surprised that it went straight into the World Cup after just one test run in the summer. You didn’t take part in the summer test, but do you still have an opinion on this event?
I have to admit that surprised me too. Looking at the facts, I’m not a fan of this event. Only two jumpers per nation start and I see the danger that not the best of each nation will jump. From a nation like Germany, for example, the fourth or fifth best jumper can jump for podium places. And you can never tell in advance who will jump there. There is a lot of untapped potential there.
So, for you, does this disadvantage outweigh the fact that you could take a day off from competing in this long and packed season?
I see it like this: If I have the opportunity to compete in a competition, then I want to take it with me. You train all summer for these competitions and if I go to an event somewhere I want to do it if I can. One travels there and prepares for it. If you then only have one competition, the effort is too high in my opinion.
Your colleagues will have a competition in one place for the first time this year in Vikersund, where the premiere of ski flying will take place. How do you rate the format with the top 15 in the raw air standings and is Vikersund a good place to start?
I think the format they found is very good. Ski flying is another house number and it is primarily about safety. The starting field for women is getting better and better. The level increases every year and that is very nice to see. From a certain point, however, the level drops, especially on large hills. On a 120 meter hill, the gap between first and 30th place is quite large.
But I am of the opinion that the top 15 will master ski flying very well. For safety reasons, it’s wise to only let the very best compete. Otherwise, I see the danger that someone who has the chance to go ski flying will do it, regardless of whether it makes sense at all. It’s the same with us gentlemen.
That way, the top 15 get the chance, which I think is a good compromise to start with. On paper, Vikersund is the biggest ski jump, but it’s a good start. The approach speed there is not quite as high as in Planica or on the Kulm and the air is much flatter. As soon as it becomes dangerous there, you have the opportunity to “stop” the flight and land in the middle of the slope – unlike in Planica or on the Kulm, where you fly much higher. But my first choice would have been Oberstdorf, because the flight curve there is very nice and flat and the slope is very sheltered from the wind. It also doesn’t go as far as the one in Vikersund.
Those who will be missing in Vikersund and also at all other stations are the jumpers from Russia, whose exclusion was recently extended. How do you feel about this decision?
That’s a very difficult question. The way I see it, this war must have consequences and that we should set an example together. I feel sorry for the athletes. You only have a limited amount of time to practice your sport and here in ski jumping, the team was just really on the rise, unlike in cross-country skiing or biathlon. They end up paying for mistakes they didn’t make themselves. Overall, I’m conflicted and don’t know how I would have made the decision.
The world association FIS has also made decisions in the material sector. There are new rules for the suit cut, new measuring methods and also a new material controller. In your opinion, after the inglorious mixed team premiere at the Olympics, are things now going in the right direction?
The rule changes themselves have little to do with the Olympics. Many unfortunate things have been linked there and mistakes have happened, especially on the human side. In my opinion, it was not a problem with the rules at the time, but with the control procedure.
The changes that are now in place all have good intentions. They want to make sport fairer and more transparent. However, the suit remains a flexible object, adapted to a body that is also not the same every day. That is why it will always remain a difficult subject.
I just hope that what happened at the Olympics doesn’t happen again. However, the rules alone do not protect against this. However, I think that it has been worked up well and the new materials controller is very hard-working and committed. He’s trying to make it fair and transparent, and I have a good feeling about that.
Finally, there is the obligatory question: What goals has Karl Geiger set for this season or, to put it another way: What has to happen for Karl Geiger to be satisfied with his season?
That’s a very good question, I don’t know myself yet (laughs). I have to get used to it now, but if I can play at the level of the last few years, I can be very satisfied. Of course I would like to improve and preferably win a lot.
But it’s not a request concert and the competition never sleeps. You can manage, but you have to see where you can improve, but the whole world is trying. And when you’re already far ahead, there’s not much room left to go further. If I’m still able to jump a season like the last one, then the season went well.
My goals are pragmatic: I don’t want to stand still and cling to old patterns, but go in openly and freely. I want to develop myself as a jumper and as a person. My goals are to give my best every weekend and to optimize my jumps so that it is enough for top rankings.
Luis Holuch conducted the interview