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Austria celebrates victory at Super Team premiere in Predazzo
At the premiere of the Super Team competition in Predazzo, Austria secured gold with Jan Hörl and Stephan Embacher. The competition was canceled after two of three planned runs due to heavy snowfall. Poland took silver and Norway bronze. The German duo narrowly missed out on a medal, while the favored Japanese team disappointed. A total of 17 nations took part, with some ending their competition after the first run.
The premiere of the super team competition at the Winter Olympics in Predazzo was marked by difficult weather conditions. Heavy snowfall made it impossible to continue as planned, so the competition was stopped at the end of the third round. Despite this, Austria secured the deserved victory after two rounds. The German duo of Andreas Wellinger and Philipp Raimund narrowly missed out on a medal by 0.3 points.
Jan Hörl and Stephan Embacher soared to the Olympic victory with 568.7 points. The two athletes clearly beat Poland's Pawel Wasek and Kacper Tomasiak (547.3 points). Bronze went to Norway's Johann Andre Forfang and Kristoffer Eriksen Sundal (538 points).
For the Austrian team under head coach Andreas Widhölzl, the triumph marked a conciliatory end to the Olympic Games. In the previous competitions, the nation had surprisingly failed to win any medals. Hörl opened the competition, which replaces the classic four-man team jumping in the Olympic program, with a strong jump of 137.5 meters, laying the foundation for the lead. In the second round, Embacher extended the lead further with a jump of 139 meters. Austria entered the decisive phase with a clear lead over Poland and Norway. The battle for silver and bronze was particularly exciting before heavy snowfall set in and led to the competition being abandoned after a lengthy interruption.
Until then, the German duo of Andreas Wellinger and Philipp Raimund had also been in contention for a medal. After two rounds, the team was in fourth place thanks to jumps of 137 and 137.5 meters, just 0.3 points behind Norway. Shortly before the competition was abandoned, Raimund had even overtaken Poland with another strong jump of 136 meters, before the jury ended the competition with three jumpers remaining. The disappointment in the German camp was correspondingly great, as they had calculated realistic chances of winning a medal based on their performances.
The competition was particularly disappointing for the favored Japanese team. The duo of Ren Nikaido and Ryoyu Kobayashi failed to get into their stride. Kobayashi fell well short of expectations with a jump of 129 meters in his first attempt. In the end, Japan only managed sixth place behind Slovenia with Anze Lanisek and Domen Prevc. Behind them were the teams from Switzerland and the USA.
A total of 17 nations took part. Italy, as the host nation, finished tenth, Finland ninth, Kazakhstan eleventh, and France twelfth. For Estonia, Ukraine, Turkey, China, and Romania, the competition ended after the first round.
The Super Team competition marks the end of the Olympic ski jumping competitions. After a free weekend, the action continues at the end of February with ski flying at Kulm, where the next World Cup decisions will be made.