Supreme Tschofenig soars to eighth World Cup win
Feb 09, 2025·Ski Jumping
Four Hills champion Daniel Tschofenig added another honor to his growing list of successes in the 2024/25 season with an eighth World Cup win, following a stunning final jump in Lake Placid (USA).
The Austrian, who has consistently been the standout athlete on the men’s tour for the last two months, had finished third in the opening World Cup on Saturday, which was won by Johann Andre Forfang (NOR).
The Norwegian was again in contention for another podium finish, but would ultimately finish fourth, with Tschofenig’s sublime 132.5m second round effort securing victory.
It was all the more impressive given variations in the wind speed athletes experienced in the closing stages of the contest, with the Austrian held for several minutes before his jump.
Tschofenig finished with a total of 275.1 points. Countryman Jan Hoerl (269.1) was second, adding another top-three result to what is his best-ever season on the circuit.
Slovenian Anze Lanisek (262.3) gave further evidence of his improving form ahead of the World Championships next month, with third.
“It was great the second one (jump), Tschofenig told FIS after the competition.
“We had a lot of time up there, standing in our boots and suits and we lost all feeling in our feet, but I managed to get over it.
“Sure, it’s the best jump I’ve had this weekend here and I’m really happy with that.”
After Friday and Saturday’s World Cup events had been hit with a host of wind-related challenges the 50-strong men’s field appeared to be heading into a competition where calmer conditions would be the theme of the day.
While that was true for the first round, the weather would prove more problematic in the second.
Before that though the crowd were able to enjoy an entertaining opening to the second men’s Lake Placid (USA) World Cup, which saw Olympic champion Ryoyu Kobayashi (JPN) deliver one of his strongest performances of the season.
The three-time Four Hills Tournament winner found himself in second at the halfway stage and in contention for a first podium finish of the season.
Hoerl topped the standings after recording the further jump of the round – 128m – which scored 130.7pts, with Tschofenig third and Kobayashi’s team-mate Ren Nikaido fourth.
Gregor Deschwanden (SUI) and Maximilian Ortner (AUT) were not feeling quite as optimistic after placing 26th and 27th respectively after round one, however, battle for the podium places looked wide-open.
Just 3.6pts separated leader Hoerl from Kristoffer Eriksen Sundal (NOR) in eighth, but for even wider context, only 11.8 points separated the top 20 athletes.
As expected, there would be number of significant positional changes in the second round.
2023/24 Crystal Globe winner Stefan Kraft (AUT) moved up five places from 19th to 14th, while Domen Prevc (SLO), who topped the standings in each of the qualification contests, jumped four to place eighth.
The Japanese duo were unable to match their first-round heroics with Kobayashi and Nikaido slipping to fifth and 10th respectively.
Halvor Egner Granerud (NOR) rounded off a dramatic weekend with an encouraging seventh-place finish, having competed with kit loaned from team-mates.
The three-time World championship silver medalist was unable to board a flight to the USA last week after incorrectly entering his passport details.
He subsequently faced a late dash to the Lake Placid venue just ahead of qualifying on Friday, which the Norwegian made, but without his equipment.
“I made a small mistake filling out the form when we were coming into Canada so I was denied the original flight, so I had to stay an extra day in Paris,” revealed Granerud.
“Then I came directly from the airport, start number eight in qualification and I didn’t get any luggage, so it’s been a bit tricky!
Granerud continued; “with the new rules we always travel with the suit in the hand luggage, so I had that, but it’s Forfang’s skis and boots.
“I think these are my gloves but I borrowed a helmet from the local ski club here in Lake Placid and borrowed some goggles from (Benjamin) Osetvold and socks from (Marius) Lindvik, so a lot of good stuff!”
Four-time Olympian turned commentator Jernej Damjan (SLO) likened his setup to being akin to a “Frankenstein Monster, made up of different parts” due to the random nature of his setup.
Away from the kit drama, the changing weather conditions added an extra dimension to the closing stages of the contest.
Forfang and Lanisek both put themselves into contention, before Tschofening soared past their scores.
With Kobayashi unable to match their efforts only Hoerl could deny his countryman victory and while he 131m jump was highly impressive, it was not enough to catch the man who will soon seek his first World championship honor next month.
