No golden World Cup times

Austria’s Nordic polished in the final of the World Championships in Planica at the weekend with two bronze medals from combined Johannes Lamparter and the hitherto hapless men’s ski jumping team with Daniel Tschofenig, Michael Hayböck, Jan Hörl and Stefan Kraft in the team competition. The fact that there were no golden times in Slovenia, as was the case recently for the Alpines at their World Championships, is a case for the statistics. The last time that happened to Red-White-Red was in the year of snow, i.e. 1985. Other title fights still stuck with that:

Lady power: Ski jumper Eva Pinkelnig from Vorarlberg ran out of gas at the end, but the World Cup leader delivered under pressure in Planica. The 34-year-old took silver in the normal hill individual and with the women’s team. Only Germany’s Katharina Althaus was more impressive with three gold medals and one bronze medal. Sweden’s cross-country skiers with Ebba Andersson, Jonna Sundling and Co. won three of the four individual races and the team sprint.

Young wave: 19-year-old Alexandria Loutitt made history for Canada as the country’s first large hill world champion, and two debutants also made their mark in the ÖSV camp. The 18-year-old jumper Julia Mühlbacher, who only jumped on the World Championship train at the last minute with good performances, got hold of silver with the women’s team and her experienced Innviertel compatriot Jacqueline Seifriedsberger. The 21-year-old combined athlete Stefan Rettenegger is also a promise for the future with mixed and team bronze.

serial offender: Norway has been the dominant nation in Nordic title fights for 24 years. For the 13th time in a row, the Vikings led the medal table. As usual, cross-country stars such as Johannes Hösflot Kläbo, Pal Golberg and Simen Hegstad Krüger are largely responsible for this. But combination king Jarl Magnus Riiber even overshadowed her with four gold medals. Jumper Halvor Egner Granerud, on the other hand, was disappointing in the individual competitions.

audience flop: The high price of admission tickets turned out to be a flop for the otherwise hard-working and well-positioned World Cup organizers. Only 60,000 instead of the expected 150,000 spectators were counted. Despite often spring-like conditions, great competition venues could be offered.

Nation Density: It was obvious that only a few countries were fighting for the medals at this World Cup. Former Nordic bastions such as Finland, Japan and Switzerland left out a lot. On the other hand, major sporting powers like the USA are on the rise again.