I came across this today on Instagram and it reminded me to answer the sj family survey (which I just filled in) and that I wanted to write a little summary of something of this past season so I’m trying to do this but I don’t really know what to say.
First off: Ski jumping - here on the tag as well as what we can gather from “real life” and what’s going on between the athletes - really is a family and I love that about it. I’m happy for everyone who wins or does well, I feel for anyone who’s disappointed or frustrated. Being German though, I do have favourite jumpers and a favourite team and I feel (a bit) more strongly for the German athletes than the others. And really, this graphic just shows what the season has felt like from a German perspective (it’s Karl’s world cup rankings) - a lot of ups and downs.
It seems stupid to nit-pick when you’re ending it with silver in the overall standings and another athlete (Eisei) in the Top 10, with two Olympic medals (three with Katha’s), one from the Ski Flying World Championships, with 23 podiums… But the season felt very turbulent, more straining than usual, starting after (or maybe even with the beginning of the 4Hills, with all the media attention that ski jumping really only gets during that competition) all the way to the end in Planica - with a pleasant interruption in Titisee-Neustadt.
Pressure was on for the 4 Hills, it was even more on for the Olympics, it seemed; it was on for Vikersund with Karle being the defending champion - and obviously that’s part and parcel of being a professional athlete but other athletes, other nationsseemed to be able to cope better than the Germans.
Consistency is something Stefan Horngacher and Horst Hüttel were talking about in Planica, something Germany seems to be lacking a bit. Horngacher said the team had to climb out of holes a few times in the season, Hüttel said they were lacking mental vigour at the end of the season and had to work on that. (And also, that they were looking to integrate more younger athletes into the world cup.)
Karle said that he hasn’t often won at the big points yet - he was talking about the overall World Cup there, but the big points, the highlights of the season this year were Beijing and Vikersund and - compared to the Championships in Oberstdorf last year, compared to the SF Championships in Planica only a few months before that, compared to Innsbruck 2019 and obviously Pyeongchang 2018 - Team Germany wasn’t there to win, not as much as they were at the other events respectively.
I guess that’s what’s feeding into that (my) feeling that this season was a bit of a write-off - again, from the German perspective. Without wanting to take away from what the athletes did achieve (see above), without taking away from what other athletes and nations showed us - I mean, how can you be sad or disappointed when you watch Team Slovenia fly like they did, when you see Danny win a world cup, when you see Marius become Olympic Champion, when you see athletes win their first world cups (looking at you, Lanisek and Huber)… Not everything was a bad, but it was a very mixed bag for sure. (Not even taking into account all the dsq drama, coaches accusing other teams, etc.)
Anyone else feeling like this? Or maybe totally different? Or have you all already distanced yourself from ski jumping until the next season starts?
I’m not being accusatory here in the slightest, I’m not demanding anything from the German jumpers - I feel for them because to me it looked like they were under pressure, like things were really hard for them, like they were lacking some kind of flow and didn’t really know how to get back into it and I would’ve wanted for them to be able to perform the way they wanted to (or maybe expected it from themselves).
Apparently I like to torture myself because I was watching videos from Planica until I came across the horribly sad interview with Consti from the team comp. Poor boy :(((
so tajner went ahead and quickly announced a new coach to show everyone that polish ski federation has everything under control… while there’s literally nothing under control here.
