"Suspicious ..."

“Sick!” Norway attacks Austria

Viking Forfang (right) jumps well, the ÖSV eagles jump better. Maren Lundby doesn't understand.(Bild: AP/ANDREAS TROESTER, AP)

Norway attacks Austria. The dominance of the ÖSV eagles at the Four Hills Tournament is "sick and suspicious", says a former ski jumper. But our team remains cool.

Fear is rife in the ski jumping circus. The fear of having missed out on a decisive development. While the Austrian "eagles" are floating on cloud nine after a triple victory at the start of the Four Hills Tournament in Oberstdorf, the big puzzling began among the competition. How can it be that one nation is so dominant? Especially as the red-white-red flying armada had already celebrated a double and a triple success at the dress rehearsal in Engelberg.

The colleagues from Germany started very subtly with psychological warfare and assigned the role of favorites to Stefan Kraft, Jan Hörl and Daniel Tschofenig. This made the ÖSV trio smile, but Kraft and Co. gladly accepted their new role.

"Unusual"
Behind the scenes, there had long been talk of a material advantage for the Austrian fleet. The Norwegians were also surprisingly open about it. "It is unusual for a nation to dominate in the way that the Austrians do," explained former tour winner Halvor Egner Granerud. Johann Andre Forfang, the best Viking in Oberstdorf in fifth place, echoed the same sentiment. "We're scratching our heads and wondering what the Austrians have come up with," said the 29-year-old.

It's absolutely sick. Nobody knows what it is.

Ex-Skispringerin Maren Lundby

Former ski jumper Maren Lundby took the cake. In her role as an expert on Norwegian television, she declared: "It's absolutely sick! Nobody knows what it is!" The 30-year-old, who was Olympic champion in 2018, added: "It's suspicious. (...) There must be something there."

The Austrian camp is emphatically relaxed. The suits are closely inspected by the world federation, and so far there have been no complaints. The red-white-red high flying at the tour can therefore continue.