Karl Geiger slapped his thighs and shook his head: The German ski jumpers didn’t make it onto the podium at the Olympic dress rehearsal of the mixed team competition.
Katharina Althaus, Markus Eisenbichler, Juliane Seyfarth and final jumper Geiger had to admit defeat to the victorious Slovenian team, Norway and Austria on the Großer Mühlenkopfschanze in Willingen. In the end, the third-placed Austrians were missing the tiny figure of around 60 centimeters.
“I noticed that the jump wasn’t quite optimal,” Geiger explained his reaction after his second attempt. He “came out a bit wrong,” said the 28-year-old and was annoyed that the team had to suffer: “That really pissed me off.” The violinist, who is the leader in the overall World Cup, landed after 132.5 and 129 meters.
He and friend Eisenbichler (129.5 and 129 meters) were not able to shine as well as they did on the outstanding weekend before with two wins for Geiger and two third places for Eisenbichler in Titisee-Neustadt.
“Of course we wanted to get on the podium today,” said men’s national coach Stefan Horngacher on “ZDF”. “We knew it was insanely difficult.” After the first round, the German team was third behind Norway and ahead of Austria.
At the women’s premiere on the huge ski jump, Althaus jumped 126 and 127 meters. Seyfarth landed after 111 and 119 meters. The Japanese Yuki Ito had previously shown what is possible in Willingen: The 27-year-old jumped a furious 154 meters in training with a long run-up and thus broke the hill record for men (153 meters).
“We are shaken awake for the next competition”
Despite the less than optimal test, the German team is also one of the favorites at the premiere of the mixed competition at the Olympic Winter Games in China. “We’re shaken awake for the next mixed competition, and then we hope that we’ll jump up there again,” said Horngacher.
At the home World Championships last year in Oberstdorf, the quartet of the German Ski Association (DSV) with Althaus, Eisenbichler, Geiger and Anna Rupprecht won gold ahead of Norway and Austria. German jumpers recently won the title four times in a row at the World Championships.
Unlike many other winter sports enthusiasts, the DSV eagles don’t have a breather just before the Olympics. Individual competitions continue on Saturday. The women start at 1 p.m. (ZDF), the men at 4 p.m. (ZDF and Eurosport)