At the age of 33, Pius Paschke won his first World Cup victory. He is the oldest ski jumper to ever achieve this. About a man who had to wait a long time for the big leap.
Pius Paschke has been jumping in the German national team for 13 years and in international ski jumping competitions for almost 19 years. So far his career has been less than picture-perfect, but that now seems to be changing. At 33, the Munich native is in the form of his life and is suddenly one of the German hopes at the Four Hills Tournament.
The long journey of Pius Paschke
For years the Continental Cup was his home. In 2010 Paschke started in this second-class competition for the first time. “But I worked through everything there step by step and learned a lot,” he says looking back: “Sometimes I thought, phew, it’s a long way to the World Cup. But I was always allowed to do what I enjoyed prepared.”
Seven years later, the then national coach Werner Schuster brought him into the World Cup team. He celebrated his debut in the World Cup in December 2013 in Engelberg. Paschke is 27 years old. For comparison: His current teammate Andreas Wellinger is already a two-time Olympic champion at the age of 28.
Horngacher praises “Fighter” Paschke
But Paschke shows perseverance. In 2020 he became team runner-up in the world championship in ski flying, and in 2021 he won World Cup gold in the team. In Ruka at the end of November he was on the podium for the first time in the World Cup – and in Engelberg on Saturday he was even at the top.
Teammate Karl Geiger also knows Paschke’s path to the top in the world: “Given his perseverance, it’s more than deserved.” National coach Stefan Horngacher saw it similarly: “Everyone knows what fighter Pius is and how he always came back.”
Paschke on his tour chances: “Others are favorites”
In Engelberg, after the victory on Saturday (December 16th, 2023), Paschke was able to take third place on Sunday (December 17th, 2023). It was the last competition before the start of the Four Hills Tournament on December 28th in Oberstdorf. It is clear that the 33-year-old is also one of the title contenders in the fight for the Golden Eagle. But he doesn’t want to know anything about it: “Other people are favorites,” says the man from WSV Kiefersfelden. He would rather “jump better than ever before”. Everything else is “not so important” to him.
It is also his modesty that got him to where he is now at an advanced age for ski jumpers. There were also older World Cup winners. The Japanese Noriaki Kasai was still on the World Cup podium at the age of 42.
With material from sid/dpa