German top jumpers ready for season opener

After a very successful last season, the German ski jumpers are now looking forward to the upcoming Olympic winter, which will start this weekend with two competitions in Nizhny Tagil, Russia.

"I'm really looking forward to Nizhny Tagil. Finally, the World Cup is starting again and finally, we can jump on snow again. I want to enjoy it and start the winter without any big expectations. We will all know more after the first competitions and so I'll just wait and see. I'm fit and healthy, I was able to recover from the small physical problems I was struggling with last winter over the summer. It took a little while, but it went well, especially in the final phase of the preparation for this season", said Markus Eisenbichler, who finished second in last winter's overall World Cup.

Ski Flying World Champion Karl Geiger is also satisfied with how training went for him and is optimistic when it comes to the new season: "Right now my jumps are on a good level, I'm excited to see what they will be worth. I feel fit and ready for the World Cup opener in Nizhny Tagil. I didn't compete there last year, so I'm looking forward to the competitions in Russia even more now. After the fine-tuning of the setup recently, it's now about getting used to competing again, having a good start, staying healthy, and continuing working from one weekend to the next.

Freund misses opener
Next to Eisenbichler and Geiger, four more Germans will be competing in the World Cup opener in Russia, veteran Severin Freund will not be one of them. "The performances this summer and also the jumps in the recent training camps were decisive for the nomination of the World Cup team. Karl Geiger, Markus Eisenbichler, Pius Paschke, Stephan Leyhe, Andreas Wellinger, and Constantin Schmid earned their spots on the team with consistent and good performances. Severin Freund and Martin Hamann narrowly failed to make the cut and will be competing in the Continental Cup for now", explains head coach Stefan Horngacher.