At the moment the ski jumpers approach, a gong sounds in the Zhangjiakou stadium, but the athletes on top of the tower don’t notice much of it. Not Markus Eisenbichler anyway, on Monday evening, he was just by himself. Of course, they always aim to be able to hide everything that could distract them from their sport at the moment when all their skills are important: body tension, position on the descent, the right timing at the ski jump. This time it worked for Eisenbichler, “I was completely inside the tunnel and I knew exactly: Eisei, nothing can go wrong now. Now just land well. And then it’s scratched, that thing.”
When he came out of his tunnel, the scoreboard read 139.5 meters, the invited audience in the stands waved their clattering hands, but Eisenbichler’s scream drowned them out effortlessly.
But the thing wasn’t scratched yet. It was the second round in the team competition, and Eisenbichler, as the penultimate jumper, played a big part in making it a long evening for the Germans later on: The team with Eisenbichler, Constantin Schmid, Stephan Leyhe and Karl Geiger the team from Norway in the fight for bronze. Gold went to Austria in front of the Slovenian jumpers on the silver rank. The team bronze was the second medal for the German men on the large hill after Geiger’s third place on Saturday. It was a medal that they had feared for a long time, and in the end Eisenbichler had even prayed: “Normally I rarely do that.”
“Four years ago I wasn’t allowed to jump, now I really wanted this medal”
The run-up to his Olympic medal was a long one, the team had won silver in Pyeongchang in 2018 – but Eisenbichler was not allowed to compete against Stephan Leyhe after an internal competition. He was all the more emotional in China: “Four years ago I wasn’t allowed to jump, now I really wanted this medal.” At half time the team was in fourth place, after five of eight jumps only in sixth place. “We made really good jumps, but somehow we didn’t get anywhere,” said national coach Stefan Horngacher later, the competition was tough, “we needed a miracle, and luckily that happened.” But before that there was trembling, in two respects, the iciest conditions of these games prevailed at minus 22 degrees.
Eisenbichler’s jump had brought the team forward again, then it was Karl Geiger’s turn: he followed the 121 meters from the first round with 128. “I honestly thought it wasn’t enough,” he said later, “I just thought: there are three more upstairs. Among other things, the reigning Olympic champion.” But then Marius Lindvik from Norway landed after him at 126.5 meters, “I just thought: please, please, please, please, please”. That was enough requests to get bronze on points. “Now I’m really happy because it was really important for the team,” said Geiger.
Jumped onto the podium in several respects: The German ski jumping quartet consisting of Constantin Schmid, Stephan Leyhe, Markus Eisenbichler and Karl Geiger (from left).
(Photo: Maja Hitij/Getty Images)
Start jumper Constantin Schmid came in front of the microphones with ice crystals on his eyebrows, but the feeling of happiness warmed him. “It’s the greatest thing I’ve done so far,” he said, “I’m lucky that I was in the super team.” The 22-year-old landed at 126.5 and 122 meters and then had to wait the longest. How did he find that? “Disgusting.” A fate that he was able to endure with this outcome, “I’m super happy”.
Stephan Leyhe, who had won the internal jump-out against Pius Paschke, jumped in second place. “It’s always difficult when you have to fight for last place,” said Leyhe, “but I also showed today that I’m in good shape.” He mastered his evening with jumps of 127.5 and 129 meters. And while waiting for the decision, he didn’t even feel the temperatures around him. “I wasn’t actually cold at all, I was still full of adrenaline,” said the 30-year-old. At the beginning of 2020 he tore his cruciate ligament, but he kept his sights on Beijing. “Today I have the panda bear in my hands, tomorrow the medal. I’m looking forward to it.”
Geiger managed to start fresh in the middle of games
And also for Geiger, the strongest member of the team, it was another reward for these days in China. It was hard work, he couldn’t get used to the normal hill, 15th place in the individual and the disqualification in the mixed team spoiled the mood. “I felt dirty. I had no idea what I was doing here,” he said, but he was able to switch off all negative feelings and start again in the middle of the games. The third place from the big hill was a liberation, the second bronze with the team is now “really cool”. The summary of the national coach was positive. Of course you would have liked to take more with you, Geiger had traveled to Beijing as the World Cup leader, but Horngacher praised that they “got the curve again”. The Germans took photos of the evening for a long time, the cross-country skiers had cheered them on with a poster at the outlet.
“I’m glad that I finally have an Olympic medal, now I can tick that off in my career,” said Eisenbichler and it also became clear how much effort it had taken to prepare for these special games. Not being able to see anyone in the two weeks before departure to avoid the risk of infection, “that was hard for me,” he said, “I wasn’t completely myself there”. He is usually a very sociable person, isolation was difficult for him. But he can catch up on the socializing now, one or two beers were already planned for the evening.
On Tuesday, the Germans get their medals, now they first hugged the mascots that were presented to them when the winners were honored. The eyelashes were covered with icicles, but that didn’t bother them anymore that evening.