Defending champion Daniel Tschofenig is stuck in form before the 74th Four Hills Tournament. The six-time world champion Markus Eisenbichler clearly criticizes the 23-year-old Austrian.
“What I don’t like about him at all is the body language he’s currently showing. With every jump, even if he’s a little better, he immediately waves it off. He puts himself in a bit of a negative vortex and is no longer happy about smaller successes,” said the 34-year-old at “Eurosport”.
Eisenbichler added: “Ski jumping is simply a complicated sport. You often don’t know what the problem is – and suddenly it works again. But if you have a negative attitude and just let yourself down, then it usually doesn’t get any better anyway.”
Tschofenig now has to learn from the last few weeks, emphasized the ex-ski jumper. “If he continues like this, it will be a tough tour for him.”
Eisenbichler’s expert colleague Martin Schmitt sees Tschofenig’s crisis as a mystery. The defending Four Hills Tournament champion wants to “make up for the meters that are currently missing and is intervening in the movement,” warned Schmitt.
After his sixth and 13th places in Wisla, Tschofenig “got worse and worse from weekend to weekend”. The ÖSV-Adler is currently having “some difficulties. I don’t know what triggered it or why it’s happening now,” said Schmitt.
Ski jumping: No personnel surprises before the Four Hills Tournament
However, the two-time overall World Cup winner has a suspicion as to where Tschofenig’s weak phase could come from: “This is his second season in which he wasn’t able to train quite optimally in the summer. Then you might come back well, but somewhere a certain number of jumps at the highest level are missing.”
Austria’s ski jumpers are starting the Four Hills Tournament without any personnel surprises.
In addition to Tschofenig, Jan Hörl and Stefan Kraft, who took first, second and third place in last year’s edition of the tour, Manuel Fettner, Stephan Embacher and Jonas Schuster are also part of the ÖSV team, as was the case at the World Cup dress rehearsal in Engelberg in Switzerland.