The motivator
There are always athletes competing in all disciplines who like to first make it clear that they are currently feeling very badly. It’s pinching everywhere, it’s scratching in my neck and it’s pulling on my back, but what’s the use?
The Swiss Gregor Deschwanden Although he didn’t complain, he said clearly that things weren’t going well for him recently in Engelberg. But what the heck: After all, a ski jump like this, including the run-up, only takes 15 seconds, and he would be able to get over the slight fever and cough. Gregor Deschwanden has set a great example of how you can motivate yourself.
Switzerland hasn’t had a great jumper for a long time. Simon Ammann, 43, still jumps, but no longer in the front range. However, Deschwanden recognized the gap and jumped on it. Now he’s jumping with the best from the top ten, and if he continues like this, then he might even be a candidate for the tour winner’s podium and a role model for all high-performance athletes who want to know what it’s like to have a mid-life crisis. In any case, he was already in third place in the World Cup at the age of 33.
The hunter
There are athletes who are excellent in their discipline and yet hardly anyone knows them beyond their national borders. Jan Hörl’s career went in this direction for a long time. In Germany, Hörl is primarily known to ski jumping fans. Jan Hörl, 26, says he is in the best phase of his career – not to attract attention, but because it corresponds to the facts. He can give three reasons for this: “My jump is a bomb – therefore one with which I can still catch up with Paschke.” Secondly: “Paschke is the hunted one, all eyes are on him.” Finally: “Our whole team is stronger, that’s an advantage.” This is actually the case: The Austrians take up a lot of space in the column with the top ten: In addition to the three jumpers who rank right behind Paschke, another young ÖSV jumper comes in eight. And if that’s not enough: there is still a lot of talent available for the future.
The patient one
The presents are coming, that’s for sure Andreas Wellinger certainly, who was the most stable jumper in the German Ski Association before this season. There is no need to explain much about Wellinger, 29 years old: long legs, powerful jumps, a lot of feeling for flying and a lot of gratitude for the presents – for him of course not the ones on the Christmas tree, but the good jumps at the jump table. Because now, in the so-called quiet time, the phase begins in which all hell breaks out on the ski jumps and Wellinger’s sport wins against almost all disciplines, namely in the favor of TV viewers. Ski jumping is a unique format – and also a natural pleasure for the best jumpers on the ski jumps in the four resorts that are waiting for them in the Alps, says Wellinger. He came second last winter and is still patient. Above all, he has trained a lot and is now making his eleventh attempt to win the overall tournament; he has already worked his way up to 6th place in the World Cup. No matter how many packages there are under the tree, Wellinger’s present looks completely different and he has to make it himself.
The coffee specialist
His nickname is Forfi or Furf, and one of his hobbies is said to be coffee – and that could be important. Anyone who deals with coffee, especially Italian coffee, has an appropriate machine and can always get a real one coffee who feels that nothing can happen to him. This also applies to a ski jumper like John Andre Forfang from Trondheim in Norway. The specialists from the country of origin of this sport have not yet attracted much attention this season, especially not among the German audience. However, the Norwegians were better than their current standing in the World Cup for a long time. Forfang could undoubtedly have been positioned further ahead if he hadn’t been pushed quite high up the take-off slope by the wind in the first round of the World Cup jumping in Ruka/Finland. Then the second round was canceled due to strong winds, which is why Forfang had to continue working towards the best. Now, however, he is back where a Norwegian ski jumper should be; he was fourth in the last competition in Engelberg. How did he manage that? With good training, with patience, probably also with corrections in the jumping sequence and certainly with a good homemade cappuccino.
The highly gifted one
After a slight dent in the Austrians’ success line, a new situation has arisen. Austria’s ski jumping centers are again supplying talent, and so good that they are usually double staffed with very young jumpers who are already jumping in the World Cup. The highly gifted people are now so numerous that some may not be able to take part in the competition series. This probably won’t happen to someone, Daniel Tschofenig22, because he has already overtaken the veteran Jan Hörl and is in second place in the World Cup. Tschofenig, 22 years old, comes from a rather remote area of Austria, the region on the border region with Italy in the Veneto. But the coaches in the centers of the federal states can practice coaching better and better because they have so much to do because of the many talents, which leads to another phenomenon: many Austrian coaches move abroad because ski jumping coaching continues to be made in Austria booming. So much so that one might think that soon almost all the head coaches of the most important ski nations would come from Austria. And if a nation can train a 22-year-old like Tschofenig from the more local winter sports club SV Achomitz/SD Zahomc from the border region to become second in the overall World Cup – who else but the Austrians?
The world record holder
At first glance, one of the long-successful Austrian jumpers doesn’t fit in with the rest of the team. When today’s teenagers and young twenty-somethings do their training, one of the very established ones can practice differently: Stefan Kraft. Because of his great experience, the 31-year-old from Pongau needs less iron training than selective practice; as a ski jumper, he is really a very mature 31-year-old. Most people in this sport start mastering the special procedures at the age of 20 so that they can jump all the way down a jump. But not Stefan Kraft. When he was accepted into the Austrian national squad he was twelve; his first appearance in the World Cup came when he was 19, on January 6th in the winter of 2012. Many who jumped far so early have to end their careers early. But strength jumps – and keeps jumping. He can do this because he is smaller and lighter than many of his colleagues. He has set a number of milestones in his career so far: 43 victories in the World Cup, plus 15 with the team, but above all also the world record in ski flying in Vikersund in Norway with 253.5 meters, which is still valid today. He still has enough reserves for a surprise, especially on tour.
#Hills #Tournament #Pius #Paschkes #competitors
