Karl Geiger looked like someone who had just bet everything on black – and then came red. Geiger is rarely to be found in casinos, he learned the trade of ski jumping, i.e. in the winter sports industry. In this respect he had not got the address wrong at all. Wisla, Poland, first Ski Jumping World Cup of the winter season that has just started. But these green plastic mats as hanging ornaments, with their white and red horizontal stripes, have more of the charm of a roulette table. And roulette doesn’t seem to be Geiger’s specialty.
One of the best in the ranks of the eagles from the German Ski Association (DSV) had lost all chances of scoring points with the first jump. Rank 34, missed round two. All in all, that matched what the German athletes achieved in the first two of a total of 40 planned World Cup competitions. On day one, Pius Paschke was the best in twelfth place ahead of Markus Eisenbichler (13th) and Andreas Wellinger (23rd), who had returned. Pole Dawid Kubacki landed well ahead of the three ahead of Norway’s Granerud and Austria’s Kraft.
This weekend in Wisla was about more than points and distances. Because ski jumping started earlier than ever because of the upcoming World Cup, it was also somehow about the future of this sport. And maybe it was even about the existence of an entire industry that could be in danger for professionals and amateur athletes because the winters around the world have less and less and unreliable snow ready to land or carve on.
At least these are thoughts that apparently also concern the DSV team manager Horst Hüttel more intensively, as he suggested on Saturday after the jumping in the ARD. “The question of the future will not be what we want – but what we can do. What can still be represented in our society? The question is: what is the right way?”
Gambling has always been an issue in ski jumping
In the case of Wisla, the route led over an ice runway on both days. Conclusion after day one: “It was okay, it was difficult for me to get in here, especially with the track,” explained Eisenbichler on Saturday. “It’s just a bit different here because of the warm temperatures and the rain. And of course the women rushed down beforehand.”
The analyst Eisenbichler was basically right, although “rushing down” in Upper Bavaria is supposed to indicate massive speed – and on this point at least the DSV women had as difficult a time as their male colleagues on said Saturday. From the faces of Selina Freitag (19th), Agnes Reich (20th) and the eight-time World Cup winner Katharina Althaus (21st) you could read as much enthusiasm as the roulette player Geiger. On Sunday – under dry conditions – things turned at least for the currently best German jumper Althaus, who this time was only surpassed by the Austrian Eva Pinkelnig. “Thank God it’s not raining today, I got in better right from the first jump,” explained the second Althaus in the first, before she left the roulette mats with a smile.
Gambling has always been an issue in ski jumping. This is mainly due to the element of air, which sometimes moves – this is very relevant in this sport – whether on white snow or green fabric.
DSV team boss Hüttel really campaigned for repetitions at the weekend. “Climate change is real. Ski jumping would have a solution and a concept with an ice track and mat to counteract it. It works well,” he said on the ARD microphone. Karl Geiger didn’t say anything at first – and a day later jumped in round two and ended up in 18th place behind Paschke (16th) and ahead of Philipp Raimund (20th) and Eisenbichler (21st). Kubacki got the double victory in his own country. And the Germans now have a score to settle with Wisla, not at the roulette table but at the ski jump table.