Six finds from the start of the tour in Oberstdorf: Karle can do it

For the first time since Severin Freund five years ago, a German won the start of the tour in Oberstdorf. Karl Geiger flew into an impressive comeback after his break at Corona. Markus Eisenbichler is the man on the special and Stoch is still King Kamil. Six ideas for jumping in Oberstdorf.

1. Karle can do it

How can one have such nerves of steel? In mid-December, Karl Geiger led the World Ski Flying Championships and was the last to jump to take the lead into the valley. The same thing happened Tuesday at the start of the Four Hills Tournament: Leadership before the last jump, the competition won a lot, and Geiger coldly handles the big hit in his hometown of Oberstdorf. In between, he “just” became a father for the first time and suffered a corona infection. “You can always trust Karl,” said national coach Stefan Horngacher.

2. The “Eisei” is the man of something special

As a co-favorite after the first round, he was only 27th. Other ski jumpers might have been frustrated and tired from the day. Not so Markus Eisenbichler: he built up all his adrenaline in his second jump, he flew as far as anyone else with 142.0 m and he is still a candidate for the victory of the circuit in fifth place. Inimitable “Eisei”.

3. The Schattenberg is still the mountain of the Germans

Karl Geiger’s success was already the twenty-second for a German in Oberstdorf, far more so than at the other ski jumping hills in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (13), Innsbruck (11) and Bischofshofen (10). However, the great successes of the opening bars were often followed by great disappointment. Of the last nine German Oberstdorf winners ahead of Geiger, only Sven Hannawald won the tour in 2001/02.

4. Stoch is still King Kamil

In addition to the violinist fairy tale, the opening jump story: Kamil Stoch was only completely out of the game with the Poles after qualifying day’s Corona mayhem, then suddenly he came back and jumped to second place as a cold starter. The victory of the tour, it would be the third, is only awarded through Stoch. You don’t have to look out the window to say: Overall, the 33-year-old is the greatest jumper of the last decade.

5. The course is not good for favorites.

It’s the same game every year – experts name their favorites to win the tour before Oberstdorf, and they can remove prominent names after the first jump. Sure, Karl Geiger triumphed, Norwegian Halvor Egner Granerud was fourth. But the protagonists of the current season did not even reach the second round: Norway’s third world championship, Robert Johansson (39th) and Austria’s third in the World Cup, Michael Hayböck (48th) have already come out of the window.

6. It doesn’t work without a spectator

In sporting terms, the first competition brought everything that is ski jumping: crackling excitement and great turns in the most demanding but not unfair conditions – a perfect winner from a German perspective. But all of that seemed grotesque, strange and unreal without fans and with only around 100 eyewitnesses on the hill. Is a ghost tour better than no tour? Probably. Can you really enjoy this? Probably not.

The Oberstdorf winners and their final location (since 2010)