The German ski jumpers clearly missed the hoped-for medal in their first competition at the Winter Games in China. One day after Katharina Althaus took silver, main hopeful Karl Geiger only finished 15th on the normal hill in Zhangjiakou. The man from Oberstdorf leads the overall World Cup and arrived as one of the top favourites.
“I put everything on one card today, risked it all,” said Geiger on ZDF. He succeeded at the World Championships in Oberstdorf last year. “Unfortunately, that’s the way it is now, but I can’t blame myself. I put everything I had on the scales.” He doesn’t know exactly why: “I just hope that the big one suits me better.”
As the best German, Constantin Schmid finished eleventh on Sunday. Japan’s Ryoyu Kobayashi won gold ahead of Manuel Fettner from Austria. Pole Dawid Kubacki secured bronze. Kobayashi succeeds Andreas Wellinger as champion, who triumphed in Pyeongchang four years ago and was not nominated this time.
Things went even worse for Markus Eisenbichler than for his buddy Geiger. The Bavarian, who has already won six World Championship gold medals in his career, was eliminated in 31st place after the first round. Stephan Leyhe jumped to 24th place.
“Of course it stinks a bit. I can’t change it now either,” said Eisenbichler, who had jumped 92 meters, on ZDF. “In the past I probably would have thrown away my skis. Now I think it’s just a competition.” He added: “At the Olympics and the World Championships, I always think: either you get a medal or it doesn’t matter whether you finish fourth, eighth or 25th.”
Already on Monday the German mixed team has the chance to win a medal
The top jumpers, who also include Geiger and Eisenbichler, were unlucky with the conditions in the first round in very cold weather and in front of a sparsely occupied ranks. Not only the Germans, but other medal contenders did not cope well with it. For Halvor Egner Granerud and Marius Lindvik from Norway, the medal dreams ended after just one jump. In the second attempt they couldn’t save much, Granerud was even disqualified afterwards.
“You’re going to the Olympics and you want to win medals, ideally the gold medal. We’re going there with ambition,” national coach Stefan Horngacher said before the games began.
Geiger had been very consistent so far this season. However, the 28-year-old couldn’t cope with the new Olympic ski jump from the start. One training jump after the other has brought about the same result over the past few days: Geiger left the outrun disappointed. The well-balanced athlete known as a meticulous worker is actually considered a jumper who can adapt well to new conditions. This has not yet been achieved in the Chinese mountains. He landed after 96 and 99 meters.
The good thing for the German jumpers: they have the chance to do better this Monday. The mixed with two men and two women from 12.45 p.m. (ZDF and Eurosport) offers the next opportunity for precious metal at its Olympic premiere. Germany has recently won this competition four times in a row at the World Cup.