Andreas Wellinger and Karl Geiger are showing significant improvement just in time for the Olympic Games, raising hopes that their form crisis has been overcome.
Andreas Wellinger commented on the performance improvements of himself and his teammate Karl Geiger at the Ski Flying World Championships in Oberstdorf.
“We were able to optimize one or two things that help our instinct in ski jumping. When you approach at 90 km/h, it has to be instinctively right,” said the 30-year-old when asked by SPORT1 .
Andreas Wellinger during the Ski Jumping World Cup
Geiger and Wellinger both struggled with significant form issues in the first half of the season. In almost all individual competitions, the two DSV eagles missed out on a top 20 finish.
Wellinger Not Considered for Ski Flying World Championships
National coach Stefan Horngacher even went so far as to remove Geiger and Wellinger from the World Cup squad before the Four Hills Tournament to send them to a training camp.
Wellinger was also not nominated by Horngacher for the Ski Flying World Championships, which allowed him to train alone on the large hill in Oberstdorf during the medal decisions.
During Sunday’s team competition, however, the DSV eagle was allowed to jump several times as a fore-jumper from the Heini-Klopfer Ski Flying Hill.
Breakthroughs in Ski Flying
In the second round of the competition, Wellinger even managed a jump well over 200 meters, which the 10,500 spectators celebrated with great cheers.
“These were two valuable jumps for what is still to come at Kulm, Vikersund, and Planica,” Wellinger explained.
And Geiger also fully convinced as the second-best German at the Ski Flying World Championships in Oberstdorf. However, because the DOSB has already decided on the Olympic nominations, the Oberstdorf native will be absent from the competitions in Predazzo.