Selina Freitag only gets shampoo: trouble over a ski jumping bonus

When the German women’s national soccer team won the European Championship title for the first time in 1989, the DFB gave them a coffee service. Consisting of 41 parts, from Villeroy & Boch. The reason back then: .

There are women and men in football – the days of non-cash prizes for female athletes are a thing of the past. Or?

Apparently not in skiing.

The German ski jumper Selina Freitag reported on New Year’s Eve that she had received shower cream, shampoo and four towels for her victory in the qualification of the Two-Nights Tour in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

The men, on the other hand, received cash: 3,000 Swiss francs – the equivalent of around 3,200 euros.

This clearly irritated the former Four Hills Tournament winner Sven Hannawald. When the German ski jumping legend heard about the almost humiliating women’s bonus in the first qualification for the two-night tour, he covered up his anger with humor: “You almost have to see what you can get for it on Ebay. That’s it already bitter.”

He then reacted with a strange suggestion: “If I had known this beforehand, I would have gone to the railway barrier in the morning with a bell bag and donated or had it donated. That was a bit unfortunate,” said Hannawald on ARD and suggested To give jumpers 500 or 1000 for success in the preliminary round.

Horst Hüttel, sports director at the German Ski Association (DSV), showed understanding for the criticism. “We definitely have to think about it. As of now there is no prize money for qualifying. The towel and shower gel are a bit unfortunate. It’s smarter to give nothing at all,” he said.

The official announced that they wanted to address this issue with the organizing committees.

The women still don’t have a Four Hills Tournament. There are competitions in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Oberstdorf, but not yet in Innsbruck and Bischofshofen.

“The glass is rather half empty. We want to take the second step in the next two years. As long as this is not completely implemented, there will always be calls for it,” said Hüttel.

The second edition of the new mini-tour will soon become a Four Hills Tournament for women. After 73 editions of the prestigious men’s tour, women finally want equality.

But the two-night tour was not good advertising for this. This was neither due to the sporting level nor the difference in prize money – but more to the public interest. Despite live broadcasts on ARD and Eurosport, the newly created event receives little attention. And the number of spectators in the huge stadiums remains far behind that of men.

This was particularly dramatic on New Year’s Eve. 10,000 fans watched the qualification of Pius Paschke’s jumpers in the afternoon. An hour later, Katharina Schmid and Co. only had 3,000 followers. “There are still a few spectators left. We’ll take what we can get,” said Freitag.

The organizers even used loudspeakers and a happy hour to encourage people not to go after the men’s qualifying. However, the long break after qualifying was problematic – especially in the cold when the sun was gone. “Hopefully we will try to make the overall product even tighter,” said sports director Horst Hüttel.

Hannawald, a big supporter of a tour for women, was particularly annoyed by the lack of appreciation that was shown after qualification in the form of prize money replacement.

“Of course that’s not worthy of a two-night tour. I don’t know why they allow something like that,” said the last German tour winner to date on ARD.

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