Ski jumper Karl Geiger was the first German to win an individual World Cup in Klingenthal, and it was also the first win of the season for the DSV Adler. However, when he reached the top, the 30-year-old also admitted his doubts.
Almost three weeks before the Four Hills Tournament, Karl Geiger made a real statement. In a points thriller on Saturday, the ski jumper prevailed against dominator Stefan Kraft and celebrated exuberantly in front of over 10,000 fans.
The five-time world champion himself didn’t really expect success. “It was important for me to build on the steps I’ve been working on over the last few weeks. The first one (editor’s note) really worked for me, it was incredibly good. I wanted to do it again “I wasn’t expecting it to be confirmed,” said the happy winner: “I’m incredibly happy to be at the top. It’s been a while.”
The Oberstdorfer was ultimately just ahead of the Austrian Kraft (273.5) with 274.7 points, while the Japanese Ryoyu Kobayashi (270.7) came third in a high-class competition.
Geiger last celebrated a World Cup victory in January 2022, back then in Titisee-Neustadt. In total he now has 14 World Cup victories to his name.
Ski jumper Geiger admits “doubts”.
After his brilliant victory, Geiger also admitted that he had to nibble on the long dry spell. “I would be lying if you said you never have doubts. If things don’t go well, you can’t get out of the swamp and don’t really know what else you should do to move forward,” confessed the overall World Cup runner-up in 2019/ 20 and 2021/22: “I still tried to look forward. The past was very good, but things are constantly changing and you always have to develop further. That was my main goal.”
National coach Stefan Horngacher paid great respect to his protégé on the “ARD” microphone: “That’s Karl, he pulls it off. He jumped exceptionally well in a difficult competition – you had to fly extremely far here.”