For the ski jumpers, both men and women, it must seem like flying over a never-ending slope. The anticipation and excitement for the start of the Four Hills Tournament is always great among these partly introspective, partly extroverted, mostly very sensitive athletes. This makes the long run-up to the start – due to the calendar – all the more difficult.
Ski jumpers live from the rhythm of the weekly World Cups, but now almost a week has passed since the last competition in Engelberg, and the start of the 72nd Four Hills Tournament in the middle of next week is still a long way off. This is associated with dangers for the jumpers, some of whom are sensitive. You can catch a cold in the company of family and friends, become lethargic from eating too much goose or roast, or suddenly lose the top shape you have just achieved because of this long rest period.
On the other hand, most ski jumping people are not inclined to be reckless; their sport is too risky for that. They know how to focus on the essentials, starting next Wednesday, December 27th, when the first highlight of the sports winter begins with training in Oberstdorf, followed by the qualification and the final on the next two days. It then continues with the stations in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Innsbruck and the finale in Bischofshofen. So far, so usual.
The first complete women’s tour is now scheduled to start at the turn of the year 2024/2025
But the 72nd edition also has news, more than that, a premiere. For the first time, the women are also joining in, albeit in a reduced form, but this should grow into a full women’s tour as quickly as possible. Now, when the men start in Oberstdorf, they start from Garmisch in the opposite direction. So they arrive in Oberstdorf on New Year’s Eve, when the men arrive in Garmisch. This somewhat strange two-jump women’s tour was originally conceived as a complete four-jump series starting from Bischofshofen, but then the Austrian association vetoed it, whose strategists consider the date to be too early. According to the formulation, the first complete women’s tour should “start at the earliest at the turn of the year 2024/2025”.
Another special feature of the upcoming tour has nothing to do with planning politics and everything to do with sport. There have always been a good handful of contenders for victory at this spectacle, but this time they are exclusively Austrians and Germans. After the first four World Cups, the overall standings are Stefan Kraft (1st/by a wide margin, Austria), Andreas Wellinger, Pius Paschke, Karl Geiger (2nd, 3rd, 4th, all Germany) and Jan Hörl (6th, Austria). Although this is ski jumping, others can suddenly find their form – or some of the top five come under pressure at the start of the tour due to bad wind. And as we all know, pressure is the enemy of ski jumpers.