Four Hills Tournament - 2148 days between gold and happiness: Wellinger's ordeal
With his acclaimed ski jumping success from Schattenberg, Andreas Wellinger brought back memories of almost forgotten times - and of the teen idols of the time, Sven Hannawald and Martin Schmitt.
Accompanied by screaming fans, the overwhelmed Olympic champion made his way through the completely full center of Oberstdorf, which turned into a huge party mile. It was like scenes from the turn of the millennium, when there was huge ski jumping hype in Germany.
Early the next morning, the thousands of spectators had disappeared after a long night. However, the forecourt of the Oberstdorf Haus still resembled the heavily marked grounds of a music festival with lots of garbage and plenty of empty beer bottles. Wellinger was the celebrated star after the emotional and successful start in front of 25,500 spectators in the Allgäu. After his victory ahead of Ryoyu Kobayashi (Japan) and Stefan Kraft (Austria), he has to come to terms with a new role as the hunted.
"I would say that's a nice starting position. The challenge for me is to keep skiing like this. If I do that, I can stay in the role of the hunted," said the 28-year-old, who could become the first German overall Tour winner since Hannawald in 2002. Wellinger has a long and setback-paved path of suffering behind him. A timeline with Olympic gold in South Korea as the starting point.
Day 1
Wellinger crowns his career early at the age of 22. On an icy ski jumping night in Pyeongchang, the Bavarian becomes Olympic champion in the individual normal hill event. This is followed by two silver medals in the team and in the large hill individual. Wellinger had already been part of the Olympic gold quartet in Sochi four years earlier at the age of 18.
Day 379
Just one year after the Olympics, Wellinger plays no part in the Nordic World Ski Championships in Seefeld. His teammates Karl Geiger, Stephan Leyhe, Markus Eisenbichler and Richard Freitag become world champions on the large hill in Innsbruck. Wellinger is a substitute and spectator at Bergisel.
Day 482
The ski jumper tears his cruciate ligament during training in Hinzenbach. It is clear that he will be out of action for the next winter. But the message is much worse than being out for a single season. Because in this sensitive sport, such a serious knee injury is a massive and lasting career brake in the vast majority of cases.
Day 1441
Almost four years after his Olympic victory in Pyeongchang, Wellinger tests positive for coronavirus shortly before the Winter Games in Beijing. He does not travel to China. However, even before his positive test, he had nothing to do with the world's top athletes that winter.
Day 1827
Wellinger makes an impressive return to the top of the world with a World Cup victory in Lake Placid. The success came out of nowhere, as the Olympic champion had not previously stood at the top of a podium in the individual World Cup since December 2017. One week later, he also won the World Championship dress rehearsal in Rasnov, Romania, which many top athletes had decided not to take part in due to stress.
Day 2148
With his opening victory at the Four Hills Tournament in Oberstdorf, Wellinger celebrates one of the greatest successes in his sporting career. "This is way, way up there. It's difficult to compare with an Olympic victory, but it will be in a similar category," said the man from Ruhpoldingen.
"Never before" has he experienced such an atmosphere as he did during the German anthem on the Schattenberg. But Wellinger doesn't have much time to process this. With the competitions on January 1 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, January 3 in Innsbruck and January 6 in Bischofshofen, Wellinger has the chance to crown his career once and for all.
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- After his triumph at Oberstdorf, Andreas Wellinger was compared to the German ski jumping legends Sven Hannawald and Martin Schmitt during the Four Hills Tour.
- The celebration in Oberstdorf was reminiscent of the turn of the millennium, a time of great ski jumping hype in Germany.
- Ryoyu Kobayashi (Japan) and Stefan Kraft (Austria) were among the competitors in the Four Hills Tour, but Wellinger emerged victorious.
- The following day, Oberstdorf resembled the grounds of a music festival, filled with garbage and empty beer bottles.
- Wellinger's journey to victory included a long path of suffering, marked by setbacks and injury.
- One of the key moments in Wellinger's career was his Olympic victory in 2018 in South Korea, where he took home gold in the individual normal hill event.
- Four years earlier, Wellinger had also been a part of the Olympic quartet that won gold in Sochi, despite being just 18 years old.
- Unfortunately, the success was short-lived for Wellinger as he tore his cruciate ligament during training a year later.
- This injury was a massive setback for Wellinger's career, as he was out of action for an entire winter.
- In 2022, Wellinger returned to form with a World Cup victory in Lake Placid, marking his first individual World Cup victory since 2017.
- The 28-year-old German ski jumper had a chance to cap off his career with a Tour win in the Four Hills Tournament, which included stops in Germany, Austria, and South Korea.
- Sven Hannawald and Martin Schmitt are legendary figures in German ski jumping, and their success inspired a new generation of jumpers, including Andreas Wellinger.
Source: www.stern.de
