“Why doesn’t he actually stop?” Many had written off Manuel Fettner in the late autumn of his career. Although the native of Vienna became Team World Champion in 2013, in 20 World Cup years he was always overshadowed by other red-white-red “high-flyers”. Until yesterday. On the normal hill in Zhangjiakou, the 36-year-old jumped into the limelight behind Ryoyu Kobayashi (Jpn) to an Olympic silver medal that not even the boldest optimists expected. why?
In the meantime, Fettner was completely out of the picture and in the World Cup individual competitions he was “only” third three times – most recently in January 2017 in Willingen, which felt like an eternity ago. “If I hadn’t enjoyed it so much, I would have thrown my hat on it long ago,” emphasized Fettner. “It’s not always about podiums, but primarily about joy. And the sport has always been good for me.”
In the footsteps of Kasai
Yesterday, however, the Tyrolean definitely didn’t want to finish fourth, but wanted to take advantage of the moment. As fifth in the first round, he had put himself in wait, in the final he really let it rip with a huge leap to 104 meters (best distance).
View picture gallery
“It means a lot to me, I’m just overjoyed and I want to enjoy it. There’s a complete roller coaster ride in my head right now,” said the man who, at the age of 36 years, seven months and 22 days, became the second-oldest ski jumping medalist in the sign of five Rings advanced. The legendary Noriaki Kasai was 41 years, eight months and eleven days old when he captured silver on the large hill in Sochi in 2014. The Japanese is still jumping at 49, but due to a lack of results he is only represented as a TV co-commentator at the Winter Games.
It is unclear how long Fettner will be active. His persistence definitely paid off. “I have to say that age doesn’t make it any easier. But you can probably be even happier about the medal than if it had happened at 20,” said the veteran, whose half-brother Daniel was the press officer of the ÖSV “Adler” in Beijing is active.
Fettner’s feat also impressed his teammates. There is no one who does not begrudge him his success. “The old dog is incredible,” grinned Stefan Kraft, who finished tenth after a solid performance. For Daniel Huber (13th), Fettner’s performance was almost extraterrestrial. “Before the games, no one really figured him out, but since he’s been there, he’s jumped like a star.” Dawid Kubacki’s performance was also brilliant. After World Championship gold in 2019 on the normal hill, the Pole secured Olympic bronze. (Alex)
Angry head coach
In the absence of gold favorite Sara Marita Kramer, Austria’s women jumped past the medals in the individual competition on the normal hill. Substitute Lisa Eder, who only arrived in China on Thursday, took eighth place, Daniela Iraschko-Stolz was twelfth. Both qualified for today’s medal hunt (12.45 p.m.) in mixed, Manuel Fettner and Stefan Kraft complete the ÖSV quartet. There are unpleasant background noises at home, women’s head coach Harald Rodlauer, who had not traveled due to his corona contact quarantine, did not spare criticism in an interview. “No one asked me for advice, I had zero contact with the sporting management,” complained the Styrian. Interim coach Thomas Diethart has not contacted him since Wednesday.
Source: Nachrichten
