Four Hills Tournament 1962/63

11th Four Hills Tournament
winner
Tour winner	Toralf Engan
Oberstdorf	Toralf Engan
innsbruck	Toralf Engan
Garmisch-Partenkirchen	Toralf Engan
Bischofshofen	Torbjørn Yggeseth
Attendees
Nations	14 (AUT, FIN, FRG, GDR, HUN, ITA, NOR, POL, SUI, SWE, URS, USA, TCH, YUG)
athlete	78
← 1961/62	1963/64 →

At the 11th Four Hills Tournament 1962/63 the jumping took place in Oberstdorf on December 28th, the jumping in Innsbruck on December 30th and the jumping in Garmisch-Partenkirchen on January 1st . The event in Bischofshofen took place on January 6th. The Norwegian Toralf Engan won the eleventh edition of the tour with the largest lead of 51 points to date. For the first time jumpers from the United States took part in the tour.

Scandal in Oberstdorf

Despite the decisions of the federal government in Düsseldorf in August 1961, which prevented the GDR jumpers from starting on the jumps in Oberstdorf and Garmisch on the 10th tour in 1961/62, the GDR had a contingent with Helmut Recknagel , Peter Lesser, Dieter Bockeloh, Veit Keuert, Kurt Schramm and Johannes Riedel nominated for the tour. This did not happen with provocative intent, but according to the GDR side at the invitation of the organizers, who did not want to do without the athletic class of the GDR athletes. Everyone still remembered last year's tour, when the Olympic champion from 1960, three-time tour winner and now current world champion from Zakopane, Recknagel could not start on all four bakken. They did not want to give up this nakedness again and assured several times in advance that nothing would stand in the way of the start of the GDR jumpers. The German sports management proposed a compromise that ultimately did not catch on in the German Interior Ministry. The international character of the tour was emphasized in advance and, in the end, the FIS, an international organizer of this international competition, was launched. Since the Düsseldorf resolutions referred only to German-German comparisons, it was hoped that this reading would guarantee the participation of Recknagel and Co. On the GDR side, too, everything that could have the slightest hint of provocation was omitted. If in 1959 the so-called flag dispute was still stubborn, this time black-red-gold with the Olympic rings was accepted without complaint as the participant flag. The scandal then took place immediately before the start of the first jump. The literature still disagrees about the trigger. Well-meaning publications attribute it to a "village policeman" who discovered athletes with the GDR emblem in Oberstdorf and then set the ban on jumping in motion. More critical publications apart from the screaming GDR press saw the Bonn Ministry of the Interior as responsible. In the end, the jumpers from the GDR had to leave the hill again, but demonstratively drove down the jumping slope. The journey to the next venue, Innsbruck, then turned out to be difficult. Austria has accepted the passports of GDR citizens for a long time, but the West German side has not. Only after clear insistence on the part of the Austrian side was the GDR team approved to cross the border without the Allied Travel Passports that would otherwise be required.

Nominee athletes

nation	Athletes
BR Germany	Max Bolkart , Helmut Kurz , Georg Thoma , Helmut Wegscheider , Wolfgang Happle , Alois Haberstock , Heini Ihle , Wolfgang Schüller , Hias Winkler , Josef Schiffner , Bernd Moderegger , Günther Göllner
GDR	Helmut Recknagel , Veit Kühren , Kurt Schramm , Peter Lesser , Dieter Bokeloh , Johannes Riedel
Austria	Willi Egger , Peter Müller , Baldur Preiml , Willi Köstinger , Sepp Lichtenegger , Waldemar Heigenhauser , Walter Habersatter , Ernst Kopp , Walter Steinegger , Max Golser , Gerhard Niederhammer , Horst Moser , Rudi Schweinberger , Herbert Schiffner , Fritz Gamweger , Willy Schuster , Helmut Rauter
Finland	Juhani Kärkinen , Pekka Yli-Niemi , Niilo Halonen
Yugoslavia	Božo Jemc , Ludvik Zajc , Miro Oman , Andrej seamigal
Italy	Giacomo Aimoni , Bruno De Zordo , Agostino De Zordo
Norway	Toralf Engan , Torgeir Brandtzæg , Torbjørn Yggeseth , Jan Petter Devor
Poland	Andrzej Sztolf , Andrzej Kocyan , Antoni Łaciak , Gustaw Bujok , Jan Pezda , Władysław Tajner
Sweden	Olle Martinsson , Rolf Strandberg , Bengt Eriksson
Switzerland	Toni Cecchinato , Ueli Scheidegger , Herbert Schmid
Soviet Union	Nikolai Andrejewitsch Kamenski , Nikolai Shamow , Koba Zakadze , Alexander Ivannikow
Czechoslovakia	Josef Matouš , Jiří Raška , Dalibor Motejlek
Hungary	Endre Kiss , Tamás Sudár , László Csávás , Janos Horvath
United States	John Balfanz , Ralph Semb , Paul Johnson , John Bawer , Roger Dion

Oberstdorf

• Date: December 28, 1962
• Country: BR Germany 
• Hill: Schattenbergschanze

Item	Jumper	country	Points
01	Toralf Engan	Norway	214.2
02	Max Bolkart	BR Germany	199.3
03	Torbjørn Yggeseth	Norway	194.6
04th	Heini Ihle	BR Germany	193.6
05	Willy Egger	Austria	191.6
06th	Georg Thoma	BR Germany	185.3
07th	John Balfanz	United States	182.7
08th	Torgeir Brandtzaeg	Norway	182.3
09	Niilo halons	Finland	181.3
10	Sepp Lichtenegger	Austria	180.5
	Juhani Kärkinen	Finland	180.5

innsbruck

On the Olympic hill in 1964, the eagerly awaited duel between the world champions from Zakopane , the Norwegian Toralf Engan and Helmut Recknagel took place. The Norwegian decided this clearly for himself. Due to the good results of the German jumpers, especially Max Bolkart and Georg Thoma, they moved up to the top of the overall ranking. After Engan, who was in the lead by a large margin, Max Bolkart was in second place, Georg Thoma in fourth place just 4 points behind Yggeseth.

• Date: December 30, 1962
• Country: Austria 
• Ski jump: Bergisel ski jump

Intermediate result after 2 jumps
Item	Jumper	Points
01.	Engan	445.4
02.	Bolkart	408.1
03.	Yggeseth	404.7

Item	Jumper	country	Points
01	Toralf Engan	Norway	231.2
02	Helmut Recknagel	GDR	215.7
03	Georg Thoma	BR Germany	215.3
04th	Torgeir Brandtzaeg	Norway	213.1
05	Kurt Schramm	GDR	212.1
06th	John Balfanz	United States	211.1
07th	Torbjørn Yggeseth	Norway	210.1
08th	Max Bolkart	BR Germany	208.8
09	Heini Ihle	BR Germany	206.8
10	Alexander Ivannikov	Soviet Union	205.4

Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Since the GDR jumpers were not allowed to start again for the New Year's event in Garmisch, they left. Remarkably, this time only the team from the Soviet Union, which only wanted to take part as far as Garmisch, was the only Eastern Bloc team to declare solidarity and also no longer took part in the New Year's competition. A few days later, these jumpers met again at skiing competitions in Kawgolowo. In the overall standings of the tour, Engan was able to further extend his lead with his third day win in a row, now with over 50 points ahead of Max Bolkart. Georg Thoma was able to advance to third place in the overall ranking thanks to his second place in the daily ranking. However, the Norwegian Yggeseth was only three and a half points behind him.

• Date: January 1, 1963
• Country: BR Germany 
• Hill: Large Olympic hill

Intermediate result after 3 jumps
Item	Jumper	Points
01.	Engan	675.3
02.	Bolkart	625.0
03.	Thoma	617.9

Item	Jumper	country	Points
01	Toralf Engan	Norway	229.9
02	Georg Thoma	BR Germany	217.3
03	Max Bolkart	BR Germany	216.9
04th	Niilo halons	Finland	211.4
05	John Balfanz	United States	209.9
06th	Torbjørn Yggeseth	Norway	209.8
07th	Pekka Yli-Niemi	Finland	207.4
08th	Antoni Łaciak	Poland	206.5
09	Dalibor Motejlek	Czechoslovakia	204.4
10	Torgeir Brandtzaeg	Norway	204.0

Bischofshofen

Despite a fourth place in the last tour competition, Engan won the tour with a new record advantage. With his win of the day, Engan's compatriot Yggeseth was able to move past Max Bolkart in second place in the overall standings. The jumping was rather disappointing for Georg Thoma. The third place in the overall standings only came in 15th and thus lost valuable points. In the end it was enough for 6th place in the overall ranking.

• Date: January 6, 1963
• Country: Austria 
• Hill: Paul-Ausserleitner-Schanze

Item	Jumper	country	Points
01	Torbjørn Yggeseth	Norway	205.0
02	Torgeir Brandtzaeg	Norway	199.5
03	John Balfanz	United States	197.5
04th	Toralf Engan	Norway	195.4
05	Max Bolkart	BR Germany	191.8
06th	Baldur Preiml	Austria	188.4
07th	Willy Egger	Austria	186.8
08th	Giacomo Aimoni	Italy	186.6
09	Max Golser	Austria	185.6
10	Helmut Kurz	BR Germany	184.6

Total status

rank	Surname	nation	Overall rating	Colonel village	Inns- bruck	Garmisch- Partenk.-	Episcopate hofen
01	Toralf Engan	Norway	870.7	214.2 / 01.	231.2 / 01.	229.9 / 01.	195.4 / 04.
02	Torbjørn Yggeseth	Norway	819.7	194.6 / 03.	210.1 / 07.	209.8 / 06.	205.0 / 01.
03	Max Bolkart	BR Germany	816.6	199.3 / 02.	208.8 / 08.	216.9 / 03.	191.8 / 05.
04th	John Balfanz	United States	801.2	182.7 / 07.	211.1 / 06.	209.9 / 05.	197.5 / 03.
05	Torgeir Brandtzaeg	Norway	800.7	182.3 / 08.	213.1 / 04.	204.0 / 10.	199.5 / 02.
06th	Georg Thoma	BR Germany	797.3	185.3 / 06.	215.3 / 03.	217.3 / 02.	179.4 / 15.
07th	Antoni Łaciak	Poland	759.9	177.6 / 13.	195.0 / 19.	206.5 / 08.	180.8 / 13.
08th	Willi Egger	Austria	758.4	191.6 / 05.	191.8 / 23.	188.2 / 19.	186.8 / 07.
09	Pekka Yli-Niemi	Finland	746.8	167.9 / 25.	202.9 / 12.	207.4 / 07.	168.6 / 26.
10	Josef Matouš	Czechoslovakia	742.3	176.2 / 15.	193.4 / 20.	197.1 / 12.	175.6 / 18.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ World champion Toralf Engan won . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna December 29, 1962, p. 10 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
2. ↑ The Springer of the Year - Thoralf Engan . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna January 1, 1963, p. 12 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
3. ↑ Berliner Zeitung of January 1, 1963 p. 2
4. ↑ Engan before complete victory . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna January 3, 1963, p. 12 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
5. ↑ In mishap, Engan proved his class . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna January 8, 1963, p. 11 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
6. ↑ FIS results list
7. ↑ FIS results list
8. ↑ FIS results list
9. ↑ FIS results list
10. ↑ FIS results list

literature

• Robert Kauer, Raymund Stolze, Klaus Taglauer: 50 + 1 years International Four Hills Tournament Flying & Siegen . 3. Edition. wero press, Pfaffenweiler 2002, ISBN 3-9808049-0-9 .