The German ski jumper Karl Geiger voluntarily extended his season with a show event in Poland. The DSV eagle looks back on the competition in his column for sports.de.
The post-season event in Zakopane is behind me: a major event with 10,000 spectators and internationally mixed teams, which was essentially about reaching the 1000-meter brand as a team in the addition of the individual jumps.
For me personally it was an interesting experience. Before the event, I had never asked myself whether it is possible to jump precise expanses, but was very surprised that you could hit wide brands very well with controlled dropouts of the jump. Two teams came to the point with 1000 meters each, my team was penultimate, but only with a lack of 4.5 meters.
The fun started with the 1st round, where we started very aggressively and wanted to achieve large expanses. With a possible demolition due to wind, we wanted to move as close as possible to the 1000 meter mark. The implementation of the strategy was good, which meant to operate with short expanses for the 2nd round. Then we quickly got to know the dynamics of this saving event. A teammate of mine, Piotr Zyla, calculated and made a set to only 77 meters, and large expanses were immediately asked with regard to the overall calculation.
So we experienced this up and down with great excitement and then noted that 4, 5 meters difference to the 1000 brand already referred us to the penultimate place.
The organizer’s spectacular supporting program then culminated in an after-event party that offered space and time to personally exchange ideas intensively with the jumpers.
During the World Cup weeks there is hardly any time for “international” contacts, the more I enjoyed talking to one or the other athletes.
After the voluntary extension of the season, I mentally put the battles into the corner to plan the next jumping season freshly regenerated.
Kind regards
Karl Geiger