Home win for Karl Geiger in 4-Hills opener

It was an amazing opening competition of the 69th 4-Hills-Tournament in Oberstdorf. After his Covid infection, Karl Geiger won the opener ahead of Poland's Kamil Stoch and Norway's Marius Lindvik. Geiger now has a very good chance of becoming the first overall 4-Hills-Tournament winner from Germany since Sven Hannawald in 2002.

It was definitely an exciting first competition of the 69th 4-Hills-Tournament. Favorite Markus Eisenbichler provided the first highlight of the final round with his 142 m jump. With this longest jump of the day, Eisenbichler could move up from 26th to fifth overall, his first jump was not good enough for an even better result today. Eisenbichler still has a chance to claim the overall title after this first competition. The top contender, Halvor Egner Granerud, finished just ahead of Eisenbichler in fourth. His chances to secure the title also remain very good.

The athletes, who finished on the podium today, were not necessarily expected to be there: Norway's Marius Lindvik, who won the two 4-Hills competitions in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Innsbruck last season, surprised in third this evening: It's great that I was finally able to make some great jumps again. Now I'm looking forward to the competition in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, I really enjoy jumping there", said Lindvik, who is now also among the top contenders for the overall win.

The second place went to Kamil Stoch, who was prohibited from competing by the health authorities yesterday together with the entire Polish team but was cleared today. "I'm feeling great, it was a fantastic day. I don't want to talk about what happened, I just want to thank the coaches and the Polish Ski Association for fighting for us. Hopefully, this situation will reveal the mistakes in the system and something like this will never happen again. I'm happy we got the chance to compete", Stoch said regarding the Covid measures that almost prevented his team from jumping today.

The big winner today was local hero Karl Geiger who experienced lots of ups and downs recently: He won the Ski Flying World Championship title in Planica, then he became the father of a daughter, then a Covid infection, he was cleared to compete in Oberstdorf last Sunday and now he could win in his home town. I'm really proud, it was a special day for me. Winning in Oberstdorf after everything that happened over the last weeks is really great. I'm just very thankful and happy. It's a pity that there could be no fans in the stadium today, but still, it was a special moment for me, even without the fans", Geiger said after the competition.

With Stefan Kraft and Philipp Aschenwald, two Austrians were among the best today in sixth and eighth, but had also recovered from a Covid-19 infection, like Karl Geiger. Aschenwald won the qualification yesterday, and even if it was canceled, he could keep the prize money of € 5000.-.
Andrzej Stekala remains the positive surprise in the Polish team. The 25-year-old is becoming one of the best in his team and was seventh today.

The second competition of the 69th 4-Hills-Tournament will take place on Friday in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

Results

Statements of the ski jumpers after the competition in Oberstdorf:

Peter Prevc: There's snow again, so it's quite magical to be here, but without the fans, it's a completely different story. Today you were warming up and waiting to hear the noise of the fans, but nothing happened, but apart from that, all is good. I'm really looking forward to Garmisch, there I'll try to show two great jumps in the competition.

Markus Eisenbichler: My first jump was simply not good and the conditions were also very difficult. In the second round I didn't have any pressure anymore and I just didn't worry about it. The jump was then amazing.

Dawid Kubacki: It's only the first day, of course, the guys who are ahead of me now have an advantage, but there are still three competitions to go. There are still a lot of points to score and I think everything is possible, but I'm not focusing on the overall ranking, I will just focus on every competition. I want to do my best and be satisfied when I leave the stadium after the competition.

Stefan Kraft: I'm extremely happy about the sixth place, it was my first competition in over a month and I had two very good, solid jumps. The second jump was really good and should have gone farther, but the tailwind was quite strong. I had a difficult time recently and so this sixth place is a great result.

Andreas Wellinger: I think that my jump was quite okay at the take-off. What I'm lacking right now is the right feeling, you just can't force it in Ski Jumping. The conditions are great today, it's a pity that the stadium is empty.

Philipp Aschenwald: I'm very satisfied, I could improve my performance and jumping is fun again. Even more would have been possible in the second round, but I'm happy to be in the Top 10 again. I like the hill in Garmisch, we have been training there regularly. Last season it didn't go that well for me in the competition there and I want to do better this winter.

Pius Paschke: This was a bad day, but that's all on me. I just couldn't find the rhythm of the hill today. Everything else was not the problem today. Of course, the 4-Hills-Tournament is different this time because we are used to jumping in front of a packed stadium. But that's the way it is this year.