Richard Freitag is back on the team

"Now I had some time for physical therapy after my crash in Innsbruck and I'm optimistic that I will be able to jump well at the Ski Flying World Championships. I'm not 100 % pain-free, but I'm confident that it will be fine. I'm looking forward to cool days of Ski Flying, a great atmosphere in Oberstdorf and, of course, to being back with the team again. We will have a blast for four days", said the 26-year-old.

Besides Richard Freitag, Andreas Wellinger, Markus Eisenbichler, Karl Geiger and Stephan Leyhe are also on the team of head coach Werner Schuster.

"Last year we did well on this hill. We have positive memories of the competitions. Andreas Wellinger could set a new hill record and finished second twice. We are strong and can compete with the best possible team. We are capable of fighting for the medals in the individual and in the team event. Our goal is to win at least one medal at this home SFWC. Richard Freitag is back on the team and he feels fit, but we will have to wait and see how he will do after the break. It's good for the team that we can have the best possible athletes there to compete. From the medical perspective, Richard is okay. it's hard to say how he will jump after the two-week break. We will see how he will start in training", told the Austrian.

Hill record holder Andreas Wellinger is confident before this SFWC, even though it didn't go that well for him in the final test in Bad Mitterndorf last weekend with the 15th place. "World Championships at home are always very special, and usually you don't get to experience this often as an athlete. I'm really looking forward to it. I travel to Oberstdorf motivated and with a positive feeling, especially because I had very nice experiences on this hill last year with the hill record and the two second places. I hope that we will have cool and fair competitions and good weather conditions."