1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites

Austria does it again

January 6, 2012

At the final event of the Four Hills ski jumping tournament, Gregor Schlierenzauer locked up first place overall and led an Austrian sweep of the top spots in the tournament.

https://p.dw.com/p/13fhh
Gregor Schlierenzauer
Schlierenzauer kept up Austria's Four Hills dominanceImage: picture-alliance/dpa

The final event of the Four Hills ski jumping tournament was limited to only one jump due to poor weather, but that's all Austria's Gregor Schlierenzauer needed to clinch third place in Bischofshofen and claim first place in the tournament overall.

The tournament win marks the first Four Hills victory for Schlierenzauer.

"I have fought so long for this. Now my dream has been fulfilled," the five-time world champion Schlierenzauer said. "It is indescribable."

Thomas Morgenstern and Gregor Schlierenzauer
Morgenstern, left, and Schlierenzauer both made the podiumImage: picture-alliance/dpa

Schlierenzauer is the fourth Austrian in a row to win the prestigious Four Hills tournament, and he had two other countrymen on the podium with him at the end of the event. Thomas Morgenstern, who was last year's Four Hills champ and won the individual event Friday in Bischofshofen, was second overall, and Andreas Kofler was third.

It's just the third time in the tournament's 60-year history that a single nation swept the entire Four Hills podium. Finland managed the feat in 1954-55, and it was Austria again in 1974-75.

No Grand Slam

Kofler, who was Four Hills champion two years ago, upset Schlierenzauer's hopes of sweeping the Grand Slam - all four of the tournament's events - with a first-place win earlier in the week in Innsbruck. The Grand Slam has only been achieved once in the tournament's history - in 2002 by German jumper Sven Hannawald.

Schlierenzauer had previously won the tournament's opening event in Oberstdorf and the New Year's Day event in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

The Four Hills tournament takes place every year over a week, kicking off in Oberstdorf in Germany, then moving to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, followed by Innsbruck and Bischofshofen, both of which are in Austria.

The only piece of major hardware missing now from Schlierenzauer's collection is an individual Olympic gold medal. At the Vancouver Games in 2012, he won gold in the team event but settled for bronze medals in ski jumping's two individual disciplines, the normal and large hill events.

Author: Matt Zuvela (AFP, AP)
Editor: Nicole Goebel