Now national ski jumping coach Stefan Horngacher is called upon to act as a crisis manager for the first time. After the desolate performance of his protégés at the Four Hills Tournament, the 53-year-old Tyrolean did not have much time to bring his team around Karl Geiger back to the top of the world.
“Principle of hope is always difficult, there is only principle of work. We don’t lack that much. Under these circumstances it’s very difficult to make good jumps,” said Horngacher. Among other things, he identified the lack of self-confidence as the reason for the currently poor performance.
No DSV eagle in the top ten
At the tour competitions in Innsbruck and Bischofshofen, the eagles of the German Ski Association (DSV) did not make it into the top ten – the overall performance with Andreas Wellinger as 11th and Philipp Raimund as 13th was worse than ever in this millennium. “We have to keep calm and see that we approach things again,” said Horngacher. When the pressure increases, “the shot often backfires” – that’s the case with Geiger and his colleagues at the moment.
For the first time in 17 years, the traditional event ended without a single podium place for a German or Austrian. Instead, tour winners Halvor Egner Granerud from Norway, Dawid Kubacki from Poland and Anze Lanisek from Slovenia dominated the event. “The lightness was never there, but then it went completely flutes. It’s extremely sad, bitter. I’m pretty exhausted after the days,” said Geiger. While the Austrians managed to finish in the top ten as a whole, the performances of the Germans got worse and worse over the course of the tour.
