The systems are shut down. This always happens for ski jumpers at the end of March, when the big air show after the World Cup final in Planica ends. Stephan Leyhe, Hesse’s model jumper, no longer goes into the inrun lane to wait for a signal from his coach Stefan Horngacher to send him into the depths. “I won’t do anything for a few days,” said Leyhe at the end of the season in Slovenia. “Really do nothing.” Vacation? “I’m not thinking about that yet.”
It starts again in summer. Looking at the past winter, which starts for the ski jumpers in the World Cup business with the first competitions in November in Scandinavia, Leyhe is not as satisfied as usual. The man from Willingen, now 32 years old, found his farewell performance on the huge ski jump in Planica “unfortunately not so good. Only 207 meters. “It’s not really fun,” he said, looking for reasons for what he’s actually much better at. “I haven’t found an idea for the jump.”
Bright spots after a bumpy start
Yes, that is also important in the sensitive outdoor sport of ski jumping. You have to build a connection. Leyhe’s teammate Andreas Wellinger recently put it this way: “You can feel whether a jump suits you and whether you like it or not.” Leyhe sees it the same way, and he too has jumps that are particularly close to his heart.
Above all, the Mühlenkopfschanze in the Waldecker Upland. His home, his territory. There he achieved his only World Cup victory to date. Keyword World Cup: In order to be able to take part this winter, Leyhe had to make a lot of effort via the Continental Cup. “Right at the start of the season I fought my way back into the team. “That was really good,” he said. “I got off to a good start. After that it was a bit bumpy. But there were also a few bright spots.”
For example, team bronze at the Ski Flying World Championships in Bad Mitterndorf. When you watch Willinger, who lives in the Black Forest, doing his literally erratic work, you usually see a reliable athlete. Consistency is his strength. “That’s true,” he said. “That always used to define me.”
What annoys him most is that this season there have always been competitions to forget, in which the North Hessian didn’t even make it into the second and decisive round of the 30 best jumpers. “Overall, the season was at a decent level. But I left quite a lot behind.”
Ralf Weitbrecht Published/Updated: Published/Updated: Recommendations: 1 A comment from Ralf Weitbrecht Published/Updated: Recommendations: 1
At the recent Raw Air in Norway, the tough tour where every jump counts, Leyhe did not perform as hoped as he came 34th out of 56 starters. “I can do better,” he said after the final in Vikersund. Leyhe, alongside Pius Paschke, is the long-running favorite in the German ski jumping team. Someone who changed his location years ago in order to be very close to the ski jumps in Titisee-Neustadt and Hinterzarten in the Black Forest, where the national coach also lives. The systems there will be started up again in the summer.