Sports » Sport | 109 The Four Hills Tournament takes place each year over the course of only seven days, but we’ve all nonetheless seen this spectacle at least once in our lives. On the first day of the year, following the wonderful sounds of the Vienna New Year’s Concert, this sporting event begins at noon and is watched while viewers enjoy the leftovers of New Year’s dinner. And like all good German stories, this event also emerged in a tavern, or more precisely in the parlour of theMaierhouse inGarmisch. Itwas there in1949that the decisionwasmade to organise a competition that would competewithinthescopeoftheWorldCup,whichGerman jumpershadpreviouslybeenbannedfromparticipatingin. Cooperation was agreed between clubs from Innsbruck, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bischofshofen andObersdorf, and the Four Hills Ski Jump Tournament was officially launched on 1st January 1953, when jumpers first begancompeting for theprestigious “GoldenEagle” trophy. Nowadays thequalificationsandcompetitiondayare attendedannuallybyaround130,000people, and it is impossible to find tickets after September, by which time they’ve already soldout. Televisionsmade ski jumping as much a part of our Christmas holidays as Father Christmas, snowmen or New Year’s resolutions, and German channel RTL alone pays 48.9 million euros for the right to broadcast this event for three years, which is not surprising when we consider that the programme has even higher viewing figures than the Bundesliga. Theorderhas changedvery rarely since theeventwas founded in 1953, so it all starts in Obersdorf, only for the year to then traditionally begin in Garmisch-Partenkirchen on 1st January. Next competition moves on to twoAustriancities–firstly Innsbruck,where the shortest ski jump, Bergisel, is located (3rd January), and then Bischoffshofen and the Paul Ausserleitner ski jump, which is named after a young ski jumper who tragically died there (6th January). Winning all four events is referred to as a grand slam and was first achieved during the jubilee 50th edition by SvenHannawald(2001-2002).However, thisachievement has become more common in recent years, with Kamil Stoch first repeating the result (2017-2018), which was then achieved again a year later byRyoyuKobayashi.The craziest result occurred in the 2005-2006 season, when the legendaryJanneAhonenandJakubJandasharedfirst placewiththe samenumberofpointsafter a total of eight jumps!Thiswas previously completely unheardof due to the system of the competition, because 50 competitors are divided into 25 pairs in order to qualify at all! Those who win in these direct duels qualify for the next round, alongwith thefive other competitors recording the longest non-winning jumps. This always allows for extremely diverse results, but also tension from the first minute. The competition isdominatedby threenations, each of which have amassed a total of 16 victories. Alongside the hosts Austria and Germany, this also includes Finland, which has provided amazing jumpers. Janne Ahonen is the only ace to have celebrated victory five times in this competition, during the late 1990s and early 21st century, while BjørnWirkola, whowas also a professional footballer, proved victorious three years in a row, from 1967 to 1969, representing a feat that has never been repeated.Wirkola and Jens Weißflog share another record, with both having achieved ten victories in this competition, while to date only one man from the Balkans has managed to win this tournament. The man in question is Slovene Peter Prevc, who won all jumps except Oberdorf in the 2015-2016 season and thus secured the title. During that season he celebrated victory in 15 of the 29 World Cup events and won the title of world champion with his dominant performances. Let’sconcludewithoneultimatehumanachievement. Little-known Polish jumper Dawid Kubacki set a record for ski jumps inJanuary2019, whenheflewas far as 145 metres, with the audience in Bischofhofshofen cheering ashepushedbacktheboundaries.That isactuallyprecisely the charm of these jumps - pushing back the boundaries, smashing all prejudices and conquering goals that many previously viewed as pure science fiction. Osvajanje sve četiri etape naziva se grend slem, a prvi put je viđen u jubilarnom50. izdanju, kada je to uspeo Sven Hanavald Winning all four events is referred to as a grand slam and was first achieved during the jubilee 50th edition by Sven Hannawald
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