Ski jumping – Four Hills Tournament: Large field of favorites promises excitement

Pius Paschke’s mother can hardly cross the street in her home town of Kiefersfelden without being recognized. A public viewing for all four competitions of the 73rd Four Hills Tournament was even organized at the local inn “Bergwirt”. But can the 34-year-old man, who won five of ten World Cups this winter, really achieve his first overall German tour victory in 23 years?

The burden of being one of the favorites seems to be weighing on late starter Paschke before the opening competition this Saturday in Oberstdorf: “This is a new situation for me. Let’s see how I can do it.” The tour dress rehearsal shortly before Christmas in Engelberg, Switzerland, didn’t give much hope. The series winner from the beginning of the season fell to tenth and 18th place. In addition, it is not a good omen if, like Pius Paschke, you travel to the ski jumping Grand Slam as a ski jumper wearing the yellow jersey of the World Cup leader: This happened six times for a German, and no one was ever able to win despite home advantage.

The last German tour winner, Sven Hannawald, still remains optimistic: »Pius apparently shot himself out with the results in Engelberg, but there is a reason for this: He was in poor health in the run-up to this World Cup on an extremely special hill in extremely difficult weather conditions and used violence “I’m trying to make up for it.” He’ll delete it from his “mind cinema from the hard drive.” Paschke himself describes his jumping style as “riding on a razor’s edge” and wants to “rediscover my idea of ​​ski jumping” on the tour.

»I’m expecting perhaps the most exciting tour in history. The top jumpers are completely close to each other. I believe in a duel between Pius Paschke and Jan Hörl and generally in a duel between Germany and Austria,” says Sven Hannawald. There is a lot to be said for this – after all, three Germans and four Austrians dominate the top nine in the overall World Cup. At the last World Cup before the tour, however, the pilots from the country of their arch rivals were clearly ahead with a triple victory.

Daniel Tschofenig won in Engelberg ahead of Jan Hörl and Stefan Kraft – which also includes the three tour favorites from Austria. For the 22-year-old Tschofenig, who is in a relationship with the Canadian ski jumping world champion Alexandria Loutitt, the youthful lightness speaks for him, for the four-year-old Hörl, the constant top form of the last few weeks and his extraordinary flying skills. However, the top favorite for many of his colleagues is the experienced ski flying world record holder Stefan Kraft, who has already won all the important titles. The 31-year-old was also at the top of the Four Hills Tournament when he gave Austria its last overall victory ten years ago.

A decade of waiting for Austria, even 23 years for Germany – that shows what immense pressure the pilots from the two host countries are feeling. This also opens up opportunities for athletes from other countries on this tour. The most frequently mentioned are the overall World Cup fifth place finisher Gregor Deschwanden from Switzerland, the Slovenian team world champion Anze Lanisek and Olympic champion Marius Lindvik from Norway, with the latter two in particular showing a strong improvement in form recently.

And then there is Ryoyu Kobayashi, the greatest tour specialist of the recent past with triumphs in 2019, 2022 and 2024. The man with the exceptionally aggressive flying style never made it into the top 10 this winter, but showed an upward trend as twelfth in Engelberg. “You should never write off Kobayashi,” says Andreas Wellinger from painful experience. Last winter, after a dramatic duel on the tour, he ended up in second place behind the Japanese – the fifth silver place for a German ski jumper since 2016. Along with Karl Geiger from Oberstdorf, Wellinger is considered a great German hope if Pius Paschke has to struggle with nervous nerves .

»Winning the tour is definitely a childhood dream – but for each of us in the German team. And I hope that it will come true for you on January 6, 2025,” says Wellinger, looking ahead to Bischofshofen. He came 15th at the dress rehearsal in Switzerland – just like Hannawald before Germany’s last overall tour victory in 2002. »Now it’s Germany’s turn again after 23 years, there’s no discussion at all. The one up there in heaven has to finally realize that,” says tour legend Hannawald: “There just has to be a German ski jumper who has the necessary looseness and relaxation and can pull it off.” After many unsuccessful attempts, the only question is who that could be.