Of course, Stefan Kraft can also be evil at times, but when he does, it’s primarily in a Stefan Kraft way. It rarely happens that this ski jumper gets out of his skin or even publicly reprimands fellow jumpers. He has a winning manner that inspires his ski jumping fans and fan clubs not only in his home town of Schwarzach im Pongau.
You can’t tell by looking at him, but he is already 31 years old, he has experienced almost everything in ski jumping, many victories, bitter defeats. But now he managed another surprise that made the entire audience, his team and his sporting opponents, widen their eyes. When he made his last jump on the hill in the Oberstdorf final, far down in the snow, the time had come: strength was back.
:Still in the top four
Oberstdorf is experiencing a tour start that suits the Austrians: When Stefan Kraft wins, his fellow jumpers end up on all the podium places – for Pius Paschke only the place remains.
Strength can conquer all kinds of jumps, the small, the larger and the huge. Yes, he is also a good ski pilot. The Austrian is not just an artist on skis, he is entertaining. Even if things aren’t going well, you can say that Stefan Kraft is the type of athlete who can naturally accept his surroundings with his style. But where was this carefree attitude all those weeks until Christmas and in the days after, until the first jumping of these 73. Stayed at the Four Hills Tournament?
Presumably all of this was so little visible recently because a German jumped into the spotlight. Pius Paschke, whose winning streak had already ended before the tournament’s opening competition, but who, as he has now shown in Oberstdorf, can at least maintain his chances in the tour even in bad wind. He saved himself in fourth place, Kraft’s lead over Paschke is 13.8 points, 26-year-old Jan Hörl and Daniel Tschofenig, 22, both from Austria, are 10.3 and 2.3 points ahead of Paschke, respectively.
This means a gap in the overall ranking. On the other hand, Pius Paschke can still catch up at the next competition on New Year’s Day in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. He immediately said that he had now swapped roles and was happy to accept that of the hunter: “I had fun when I was at the front, but that’s a good thing,” said Paschke: “Now I’m looking forward to Garmisch .”
:Ski Jumping World Cup: All dates at a glance
The women and men got started at the end of November and started the new season. The ski jumping calendar 2024/25 with an overview of all competitions.
Like most people in the scene, Stefan Kraft is not an arrogant jumper, even if he likes to take off. Nevertheless, his emotions and gestures were clear – Kraft had worked on the crucial detail in his jump sequence. Now the most experienced jumper in the Austrian team is once again the focus. On Sunday evening he set out to make a statement, or so it seemed. Stefan Kraft is a force to be reckoned with, and what’s more, he pointed his plow brake towards the sky with his fist as he left the field. And it seemed a bit like he felt like he did when he won the tour in Bischofshofen in January – almost exactly ten years ago. Or when he won individual ski flying gold at the Kulm last winter.
How does he do it, disappear and then come back in dazzling form? Stefan Kraft, who is mainly seen smiling or, better yet, grinning, has to suffer like everyone else. Because after his great successes, the search for ski jumping form always starts again next year. Around the beginning of the season. “There are phases where I think to myself: What will the winter be like?” Kraft said recently: And he is already experiencing severe self-doubt. Two months ago “I was so snotty, it really wasn’t good,” he says today.
But then, suddenly, the other power comes from this jumper, and the teammates think to themselves again: Krafti, you’re a crazy person, you’ve been jumping like shit for a month – and you’re suddenly leading in the first round in Lillehammer. The World Cup season began in Scandinavia in November.
The Lillehammer effect lasted longer this time. For a month and a half, a third of a season, Stefan Kraft was hardly seen in public. He could afford it too. The Austrian jumper group is so strong that it can do without the experienced force when it comes to external representation. And yet it almost looked as if a generational change was underway in Austria.
But then in the last final round in Oberstdorf it became clear: the boys still have a stronger and more mature jumper in front of them, which they first have to overcome in order to win. The Austrian head coach Andreas Widhölzl always said that he didn’t care what happened beforehand, only that everything should be right for his jumpers on the tour. “It looked like it was a good fit,” said Widhölzl, especially with Kraft. “It’s his class that he’s there when it matters.”
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