During the 2nd Four Hills Tournament in 1953/54 , jumping took place in Oberstdorf on December 31, followed by jumping in Garmisch-Partenkirchen on January 1, and jumping in Innsbruck on January 3 . The event in Bischofshofen took place on January 6th. Overall winner was the Norwegian Olaf B. Bjørnstad , who won three of the four individual competitions. The defending champion Josef Bradl from Austria, who was previously considered the top favorite, won the last competition in Bischofshofen and took third place in the overall standings.
Until late December 1953 it hadn't snowed in Central Europe, so that the hosting of the second Four Hills Tournament became increasingly unlikely. In fact, the organizers canceled the first competition in Oberstdorf, scheduled for December 27th, but failed to inform the Austrian athletes of this decision. They therefore traveled to Oberstdorf, where the snowfall began shortly after their arrival. Within a few days, members of the Oberstdorf ski club - with the help of other locals and the athletes present - prepared the hill for competition, and the foreign ski associations were informed that the tour could take place. In order to enable the start of the Northern European favorites, the Scandinavian airline SAS changed its flight schedule at short notice. The Norwegians, Swedes and Finns, who arrived on December 31, were brought directly to the Schattenbergschanze after their arrival at Munich-Riem Airport and completed their first competition there.
In the second edition of the tour, in which seven nations took part - one more than at the premiere in the previous winter - defending champion Josef Bradl was considered the greatest contender for victory, especially since several elite jumpers from the leading ski jumping nation Norway did not start in the Four Hills Tournament. Nevertheless, the Norwegian team was also strongly positioned with the reigning Olympic champion Arnfinn Bergmann . However, Bergmann already missed his chance to win at the first jump when he fell after a jump to a good 56 meters in Oberstdorf and fell back to 21st place in the intermediate ranking. In the three remaining competitions, the Olympic champion placed in positions 2, 3 and 4, which placed him in fifth place in the overall ranking. Josef Bradl also lost the chance to defend his title due to a bad competition: In the second competition in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, he showed poor performance - attributed to poorly waxed skis - and was placed behind in the midfield. With a clear victory in the last competition, the Austrian moved up to third overall and was by far the best Central European.
The sovereign tour winner was the Norwegian Olaf B. Bjørnstad with 888.1 points , who won the first three competitions, finished third in the final competition and thus achieved consistently excellent results. Bjørnstad often benefited during the tour from his good posture grades, thanks to which he left the athletes who jump further, such as Bradl or the Finn Matti Pietikäinen , behind. Almost 40 points behind Bjørnstad was second-placed Eino Kirjonen , who had only been on the podium once during the tour, but had finished all four competitions in the top ten. The best German was Josef Kleisl in ninth place.
2nd tour 1953/54 on vierschanzentournee.com. Retrieved April 23, 2011.
literature
When the jumpers were still preparing the jumps themselves… . In: Robert Kauer, Raymund Stolze u. Klaus Taglauer: 50 Years of the International Four Hills Tournament - Flying & Winning . Wero press publishing house, Pfaffenweiler 2001, ISBN 3-9806973-9-8 , p. 20f.
Four Hills Tournament 1953/54. In: Jens Jahn and Egon Theiner : Encyclopedia of Ski Jumping . Agon Sportverlag. Kassel 2004. ISBN 3-89784-099-5 , pp. 209f.
2. Four Hills Tournament 
Olaf B. Bjørnstad
Sepp Bradl
Finland
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Yugoslavia
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Sweden
