The facts around the Ski Flying World Championships

The FIS Ski Flying World Championships are held for the 25th time. It's already the sixth SFWC in Oberstdorf. The World Champions were already crowned there in 1973, 1981, 1988, 1998 and 2008.

Venue:

Oberstdorf in the Allgaeu region (GER), about a 2-hour drive south west of Munich, about a 2-hour drive east of Friedrichshafen at Lake Constance.
Heini-Klopfer Skiflyinghill HS 235. The hill was modernized with a huge effort in the recent years. Hill record: 238 m, set by Andreas Wellinger 2017.
Due to the exposed inrun tower, it's also called to the "finger of God" and it is a popular destination for tourists.

The defending champion is Slovenia's Peter Prevc, he won the title in Bad Mitterndorf (AUT) in 2016.
2014 Severin Freund (GER) won the title in Harrachov (CZE).

The competition format:

In contrast to World Cup events, the individual competition at the World Championships is decided after four rounds. These four competition rounds are held on two days, two rounds on the first day and two rounds on the second. The points of all four rounds count for each athlete, the athlete with the most points wins. This means that the World Champion is crowned on the second day of competition.

In the team event, there are two rounds. Each nation competes with a team of four athletes, every athlete makes two jumps. At the end, the points of all eight jumps of a nation are added up, the team with the most points wins.

The program:

Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018: Training and qualification
Friday: Individual, round 1 and 2
Saturday: Individual, round 3 and 4 + award ceremony
Sunday: Team, round 1 and 2  + award ceremony

Favorites:

Daniel Andre Tande and Andreas Sternen of Norway
Andreas Wellinger and Richard Freitag of Germany
Kamil Stoch of Poland
Stefan Kraft of Austria
Peter Prevc of Slovenia
In addition, there are also a few athletes with an outside chance.

Prize money:

142.000 Swiss Francs. (72.000 CHF in the individual event and 70.000 CHF in the team event)

Difference between Ski Jumping and Ski Flying:

Ski Flying hills are a lot bigger than Ski Jumping hill and the athletes have a higher speed in the inrun, at the take-off, and during the flight. On smaller hills, it's more about a powerful take-off, on flying hills the feeling of an athlete in the air is very important. Especially the Slovenes and the Norwegians are considered good ski flyers. But of course, the others know how to do it as well.