Crashed in sporting terms

World Championships as an opportunity? Biggest ski jumping mystery of the season

Pius Paschke experienced great success this season and then an incomparable decline.(Bild: GEPA)

Ski jumper Pius Paschke has experienced a mysterious fall in the current World Cup season. While he dominated the competition seemingly at will at the beginning, he fell further and further before the start of the Four Hills Tournament and even disappeared from the German World Cup team. Will he make a sporting comeback at the World Championships of all events? 

"Unfortunately, Pius is a jumper who is a bit head-strong. If his sensitivity isn't right and he tenses up, then things can get really wild," explained DSV coach Stefan Horngacher at a recent press conference when asked about Paschke. The 34-year-old was a guarantee of success at the start of the season.

The German won six World Cups and also wore the overall World Cup leader's jersey. At the time, our neighbors were already dreaming of finally winning the Four Hills Tournament again. But things turned out very differently.

Will the resurrection succeed at the World Championships?
Even in the run-up to the tour, Paschke suffered a surprising drop in performance, which was to worsen dramatically from then on. In the end, the German had no say in the battle for the prestigious tour. His results then became so poor that Horngacher withdrew his protégé from the World Cup team at the beginning of February. 

Instead of continuing to compete, Paschke and his team in Oberstdorf prepared specifically for the World Championships in Trondheim. "As coaches, we need a clear plan, which we have here, and we need a simple, practicable correction for him. It's no use telling him five things that he needs to improve. We will pick out one element and work on it," announced the DSV coach and now hopes that the measure has borne fruit. We won't find out for a few days ...