It cannot actually be the case that only one gender can compete in sport, especially at one of its peaks in 2023. After all, everyone in all Olympic divisions has long been established. Of course, women’s gymnastics is an exception, but very few men still feel discriminated against by it. There is parity in the entire sporting world, but wait – in ski jumping, more precisely in Alpine ski jumping, there is still resistance this year.
Only the men are allowed to take part in their classic Four Hills Tournament in Oberstdorf, Garmisch, Innsbruck and Bischofshofen, with all the trimmings and with a particularly rousing audience at the start. The women are now apparently there too, they are jumping in Garmisch-Partenkirchen at the same time, also in front of an audience, but hardly in front of a rock concert loud Oberstdorf roar. Katharina Schmid, formerly of Althaus, the best German jumper for many years, is happy to be there at all, but also says: “The TNT is a consolation.”
“The TNT is a consolation.” – Katharina Schmid.
(Photo: Günter Hofer/Imago)
Female ski jumpers around the world are now in a moral dilemma, and Schmid embodies this quite well. Despite the current deficit in the World Cup for the entire German team, she is one of the best jumpers in the world. And now that the best jumpers in the market town are gathering again in their home town of Oberstdorf, that the beds are fully booked and that the hustle and bustle of the pedestrian zone is similar to that in Munich, the women in Garmisch who have been ski jumping for years feel as if they are sitting at this party at a cat table called TNT, “Two Nights Tour”.
Despite all the good intentions of its creators, the “Two Nights Tour” remains a transitional construct. The name TNT may sound snappy, but with two stops it’s hardly a tour. Because something that only consists of a start and finish is not a tour, but at best a deception.
Schmid already has a classic Olympic career behind him. She came second at the Olympics twice, in Pyeongchang/South Korea in 2018 and in Beijing in 2022. She collected seven gold medals at world championships, one of them in the individual, plus various other medals. So for about ten years she has been on the road just as successfully as the men who reach their destination at the end of a real tour – namely Bischofshofen im Pongau and not Oberstdorf.
The costs of a second tour would be quite considerable. Many of the expenses that are essential for the organization would probably not double compared to the previous budget, but would increase significantly. For example, more shuttles would have to be rented for the teams and more staff would have to be hired between years. “This is a huge burden for the organizer,” says Alexander Stöckl, who has been training the Norwegians for 21 years. For the women’s actual goal, namely complete equality in jumping, we have to wait a little longer.
“It’s bitter and slowly disappointing that we don’t have a Four Hills Tournament yet,” says Schmid
But why exactly? For Schmid and most ski jumpers, such sentences are rather disappointing. Most of them want to be part of this truly spectacular competition from Christmas to Epiphany. From that tour that has tradition, diversity and excitement. And an enormous audience potential, especially on the various small screens and large home screens that light up in all living rooms and children’s rooms every afternoon from 4 p.m. This prospect, this exceptional audience, drives Katharina Schmid, as well as the World Cup leader Josephine Pagnier (France), the second overall Canadian Alexandra Loutitt, the third Juki Ito from Japan and everyone else. “It’s bitter and slowly disappointing that we don’t have a Four Hills Tournament yet,” says Schmid.
In general, says her teammate and Olympic champion Andreas Wellinger, apart from the tour, the world association could also strengthen the jumpers in other ways. In addition to the individual World Cups and the classic team competitions, he could also reintroduce the mixed competition. “This is one of the most interesting competitions we have,” says Wellinger. The mixed doubles has always been popular because it strengthens the small associations with fewer jumpers who cannot produce a powerful team of four for men or women, but two strong duos for a four-man mixed team, explained Wellinger two weeks ago at the World Cup in Engelberg.
This date was always considered a kind of tour dress rehearsal, this time as always with two men jumping and for the first time with two women. Engelberg lies under a stunning panorama of rocks and snow, but is a small World Cup venue. But he did everything. Although the staff was limited, nothing was missing. Well, the space to change clothes was a bit limited in the small gym, for example when one team at the Engelberg women’s premiere was already sitting in the locker room when the other wanted to go in.
But what the hell, in the end the small Engelberg organizing committee solved the little problem. Just as one can trust the big Four Hills OK, which looks back on 70 years of experience, to solve the problems of the big tour perhaps next year. And to create a tour that sets off with two fields of participants – with women and men, in one direction, to the east, on four jumps.