After a dominant two days in Oberstdorf, Halvor Egner Granerud is the hunted at the Four Hills Tournament. The Norwegian has often been a favourite, but he is still waiting for the big win.
Halvor Egner Granerud caught up with a ski jumping legend on Friday (December 29th, 2022). The success in Oberstdorf at the start of the Four Hills Tournament was the 15th victory of his career in the World Cup, so he now has as many as Kazuyoshi Funaki and has flown into the top 20 in the list of ski jumpers with the most victories.
Nevertheless, Granerud and Funaki are still worlds apart. The Norwegian has been considered one of the best for years, but he has never been able to deliver on the highlights of the season. Funaki, on the other hand, excelled when it really mattered. Among other things, the 47-year-old Japanese won twice gold at the 1998 Olympic Games in Nagano, was twice world champion in singles and overall winner at the 1997/1998 Four Hills Tournament.
Granerud fulfills first “dream”
Granerud has just as many World Cup victories, but none of these successes yet. After all, he was at the top of the podium at the 2020 World Cup and won gold in ski flying with the team, but he did not manage the sole coup at the Olympic Games or at the World Championships and not at a Four Hills Tournament either. But that could change now.
In Oberstdorf, the 26-year-old dominated the competition in an outstanding way. “I am very satisfied and proud of what I have achieved here. A dream has come true for me” Granerud said on Norwegian television after his triumph.
“He’s just jumping on another level”
Granerud had already clearly won the qualification and was by far the best jumper in the competition. His lead over second-placed Piotr Zyla is already 13.4 points. “That’s crazy. He’s just jumping on another level“, also acknowledged Karl Geiger, who finished fourth.
Granerud, for whom it was also the first individual victory in a Four Hills Tournament, wants to maintain this level in order to make the leap to a ski jumper for the history books. And not only his competitors around Geiger trust him to do that. he could”absolutely create“To win the Four Hills Tournament,” said his compatriot Roar Lyokelsoy, who won gold at the World Championships twice in 2004 and 2006. Granerud would then be the first Norwegian tour winner since Anders Jacobsen in 2006/2007.
The competition keeps hoping
Many of his predecessors have already experienced that there is still a long way to go. Only twelve of 25 Oberstdorf winners were still in the lead in the overall standings after the fourth competition in Bischofshofen – but last season Ryoyu Kobayashi, like in 2018/2019, managed a start-finish victory. “He’s in full flow“said DSV trainer Stefan Horngacher about Granerud: “But he has now also picked up the big rucksack, which he now has to carry with him.“
The rivals behind Granerud are lurking – they too know that the Norwegian has often blundered at crucial moments in the past. “There are three more stations. I know myself how it is on the tour: It has its own rules“said Geiger, who is 18.8 points behind Granerud. “If he allows himself to make mistakes, others will be in the starting blocks.” But also at the New Year’s competition in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (2 p.m., live on the sports show) the favorite is Halvor Egner Granerud.