It was also a joint project. And so this first half-tour of the world’s best female ski jumpers also had its moments that made it clear that the women’s Four Hills Tournament project could still be completed at some point. For example, when Katharina Schmid publicly advocated for this concept in Oberstdorf, or when ski jumpers in Garmisch-Partenkirchen gave away tickets.
Actually, at an important event like a premiere, the athletes should stretch their bodies, strengthen their jumping power, internalize the jump and much more. But this start of the Two-Nights Tour (TNT) in Germany with two stops perhaps resulted in a small bang that indicates a new era in women’s ski jumping, a sign of the last construction site in ski jumping. Namely the end of the all-male tour. So many jumpers also felt it was their duty to do some advertising on the side.
This was probably also because a new series cannot yet write sports stories. What makes sport exciting – beleaguered favorites, winning underdogs, emerging youngsters or a battle with the weather – was not visible. The half version of the tour was relatively predictable, with the winner Nika Prevc writing an interesting story, as the youngest in the sibling clan with the well-known brothers Peter, Domen and Cene. Eva Pinkelnig from Austria, who won the final of the mini-series in Oberstdorf, and the Canadian Abigail Strate landed in second and third place overall.
The German jumpers didn’t get past tenth place
The Germans? They expected more than just becoming the best of the best from tenth place onwards. In Oberstdorf, Agnes Reisch from Isny came in eleventh, ahead of her teammate Selina Freitag. Schmid, the Germans’ otherwise best jumper, only finished sixteenth. “It didn’t feel that great,” she said, adding that she lacked the “self-assurance” before she announced on Tuesday that she would rather train than start at the upcoming World Cup in Villach. National coach Thomas Juffinger was also disappointed: “They’re all between ten and 20,” he said, “but there’s still no result where we can really compete at the front.”
Horst Hüttel, sports director in the organizing German Ski Association, gave the organizers a good report. “Organizationally, the premiere was a success,” he said, because the first competition in Garmisch-Partenkirchen was ranked fourth in the broadcaster’s audience ranking on ARD. 2.28 million tuned in, 2.7 for the second jump, However, more than six million men watched. The euphoria that one would expect at the birth of something promising did not materialize.
TNT, as the tour was abbreviated, was not an explosive, but rather just a small starting ignition, which the actors could not do anything about. Half a tour only has half the attention and less excitement. There is also no time in which the media could introduce the audience to interesting characters or exciting talents who make them curious about further developments – and who make ski jumping fans interested in the world of these strange athletes, with their sometimes puzzling and psychologically demanding challenges.
There is a lack of vision for a women’s Four Hills Tournament, says record jumper Daniela Iraschko-Stolz
That’s why there should soon be clarity about the future of a real women’s tour. However, there has been no announcement yet, no start date, neither from the German nor the Austrian side. This competition is still one of the very last men’s formats in sport. Occasionally thoughts are pondered and ideas are thrown into the debate, but there is nothing that could really attract talent. Or, as Daniela Iraschko-Stolz says: “Not fish and not meat.”
Iraschko-Stolz was an adult ski jumper for 23 years before she ended her career last fall. Now, among other things, she is responsible for teaching the younger children the basics of ski jumping. Her most pressing issue at the moment is the future of the women’s Four Hills Tournament. It’s a bit like there’s a lot of advertising going on these days, but many jumpers are worried that the real tour might not come for another five years. “The vision is missing,” says Iraschko-Stolz, and he is worried that the women will then only take part as “Adabeis”, i.e. as better extras.
The organizers should now urgently draw up a binding plan that motivates the athletes: “We need a concept,” says Iraschko-Stolz. “It would have to be a common product, a workable one,” and quickly, because with every year of delay, women’s ski jumping would lose credibility. “And if we just add qualification for a tour or a World Cup in Villach,” says Iraschko-Stolz, that would be progress.
For all of this, however, the decision-makers in this sport would need the will and awareness of the situation of female ski jumpers. Apparently they aren’t taken very seriously. In any case, time is running out, at least for a concrete vision. But record ski jumper Iraschko-Stolz doubts the will of those in charge of skiing: “You don’t know: is the glass half full – or half empty?”