Four Hills Tournament 1973/74

22nd Four Hills Tournament
winner
Tour winner	Hans-Georg Aschenbach
Oberstdorf	Hans-Georg Aschenbach
Garmisch-Partenkirchen	Walter Steiner
innsbruck	Hans-Georg Aschenbach
Bischofshofen	Bernd Eckstein
Attendees
Nations	17 ( AUT , BUL , CAN , FIN , FRA , FRG , GDR , ITA , JPN , NOR , POL , SWE , SUI , TCH , URS , YUG , USA )
athlete	99
← 1972/73	1974/75 →

The 22nd Four Hills Tournament 1973/74 took place between December 30, 1973 and January 6, 1974 in the German towns of Oberstdorf and Garmisch-Partenkirchen and in the Austrian winter sports centers of Innsbruck and Bischofshofen . The winner of the tour was the GDR jumper Hans-Georg Aschenbach . The GDR provided the most successful team, which in addition to Aschenbach brought four other jumpers into the top ten. With Alfred Grosche (7th), the host German ski association had an active player in the top 10, while the Austrians missed out.

Nominee athletes

• Olympic champion 1972 : normal hill Yukio Kasaya (JPN); Large hill Wojciech Fortuna (POL)

The tour was the first major assessment before the Nordic World Ski Championships , which took place in February 1974 in Falun, Sweden . Therefore all leading ski jumping nations took part and a total of 99 jumpers were used. First and foremost, the favorites were the jumpers from the GDR. With Rainer Schmidt , the previous year's tour winner , with Hans-Georg Aschenbach, the reigning ski flying world champion from 1973 and last year’s runner-up was in the squad. In addition, there were other powerful jumpers with Dietrich Kampf and Heinz Wosipiwo . The Czechoslovak team with the old masters Raska and Matous as well as Rudolf Höhnl were among the favorites. Furthermore, the Swiss Schmid and Steiner and the Soviet team around the experienced Gari Napalkow had to be observed. With the Japanese, the resignation of Olympic champion Kasaya had left a big gap, but with the Olympic-wide Konno they still had a serious jumper on board. On the other hand, there were concerns among the major ski jumping nations such as Norway, Finland and Austria. After the last Norwegian tour winner Ingolf Mork ended his career in 1972, no new Wirkola was in sight. The Finns tried to give young jumpers experience, with Tauno Käyhkö they had at least one top jumper on board. The Austrians around old master Reinhold Bachler had been looking for a sense of achievement on the tour for years. In order to build up a new generation of jumpers, Toni Innauer, who was then only 15 years old , celebrated his touring debut in Garmisch .

nation	Athletes
BR Germany	Alfred Grosche , Ernst Wursthorn , Bernd Zapf , Klaus Boll , Toni Angerer , Rudi Tusch , Sepp Schwinghammer , Peter Dubb
GDR	Henry Glass , Rainer Schmidt , Heinz Wosipiwo , Hans-Georg Aschenbach , Dietrich Kampf , Bernd Eckstein , Jochen Danneberg , Dietmar Aschenbach
Austria	Reinhold Bachler , Walter Schwabl , Rudi Wanner , Willi Pürstl , Hans Wallner , Hans Millonig , Sepp Gratzer , Toni Innauer , Walter Habersatter , Karl Schnabl
Bulgaria	Georgi Lasev , Tascho Sterev , Georgi Geliov , Ivan Schopov
Finland	Kari Ylianttila , Esko Rautionaho , Jouko Törmänen , Tauno Käyhkö
France	Gilbert Poirot , Jacques Gaillard , Yvan Richard , James Yerrly , Jean François Jacoberger
Italy	Ermis Bontempelli , Lido Tomasi , Sandro Dalle Ave , Maurizio Duennhofer
Japan	Hisayoshi Sawada , Akitsugu Konno , Kazuhiro Akimoto , Takao Itō , Hiroshi Itagaki , Masakatsu Asari , Yūji Katsuro
Yugoslavia	Peter Štefančič , Janez Jurman , Marian Prelovsek , Branko Dolhar , Danilo Pudgar , Marjan Mesec
Canada	Peter Wilson , Tom Reaper , Richard Graves , Knut Nordle , Richard Grady
Norway	Odd Grette , Johan Sætre , Bjarne Næs , Arnfinn Henden
Poland	Tadeusz Pawlusiak , Adam Krzysztofiak , Wojciech Fortuna , Czesław Janik , Stanisław Bobak
Sweden	Rolf Nordgren , Christer Karlsson , Anders Lundqvist , Thomas Lundgren , Lennart Elimä
Switzerland	Hans Schmid , Walter Steiner , Ernst von Grünigen , Josef Bonetti , Sepp Zehnder , Eric Aubert
Soviet Union	Yuri Kalinin , Vladimir Frolov , Gari Napalkow , Alexander Karapusow , Vladimir Napylow , Sergei Botschkow
Czechoslovakia	Jiří Raška , Leoš Škoda , Rudolf Höhnl , Jaromír Liďák , Josef Matouš , Karel Kodejška ,
United States	Jerry Martin , Ron Steele , Arne Haugen , Jay Rand , Greg Windsperger , Jeff Wright

Oberstdorf

• Date: December 30, 1973
• Country: BR Germany 
• Hill: Schattenbergschanze
• Spectators: 10,000

The first jumping began with a bang in the bright sunshine. One of the favorites, Hans-Georg Aschenbach from the GDR, won with the greatest lead of over 20 points ever achieved in a ski jumping competition, ahead of his teammate Heinz Wosipiwo and the Swiss Hans Schmid. Aschenbach jumped a new hill record of 110 m in the first round. This induced the jury to shorten the run-up in the second run by two meters. As a result, all jumpers jumped an average of ten meters shorter. Nevertheless, Aschenbach also reached the highest distance in the second round with 99 m, which led to the safe victory. The second highest daily distance of 108 m was achieved by team-mate Dietrich Kampf, but he could not stand it in the run. With a 94 m jump he fought his way from 58th to 22nd. Somewhat surprisingly, Rautionaho and Ylianttila were two Finns in the top ten. The seventh place for Alfred Grosche from the German team was also one of the positive surprises.

Item	Jumper	country	Points
01	Hans-Georg Aschenbach	GDR	245.1
02	Heinz Wosipiwo	GDR	225.0
03	Hans Schmid	Switzerland	222.8
04th	Esko Rautionaho	Finland	221.3
05	Yuri Kalinin	Soviet Union	218.9
06th	Kari Ylianttila	Finland	217.8
07th	Alfred Grosche	BR Germany	217.3
08th	Stanislaw Pawlusiak	Poland	211.8
09	Jochen Danneberg	GDR	210.5
10	Hisayoshi Sawada	Japan	210.4

Garmisch-Partenkirchen

• Date: January 1, 1974
• Country: BR Germany 
• Hill: Large Olympic hill
• Spectators: 25,000

The New Year's competition was characterized by two protagonists, the Swiss Walter Steiner and the Oberstdorf winner Hans-Georg Aschenbach from the GDR. Both jumped stylistically in their own league, with the Swiss jumping 1.5 points ahead of him. The struggle for third place was almost even more exciting. In the end, there were only a little more than three points between third and tenth place and Dietrich Kampf, who was tenth after the first round, caught the Swiss Schmid with the daily maximum distance of 95.5 m. With a wafer-thin 0.2 point lead, Kampf took third place. The strong performance of the GDR team was completed by places five, six and ninth. Alfred Grosche was also able to convince again with a strong eighth place. The only 15-year-old Austrian Toni Innauer made his tour debut . In the overall standings, Aschenbach extended his lead, followed by the two strong Swiss representatives Schmid and Steiner. Alfred Grosche took a respectable fifth place at halftime.

Intermediate result after 2 jumps
Item	Jumper	Points
01.	Aschenbach	484.5
02.	Schmid	440.5
03.	Steiner	449.0
04th	Wosipiwo	444.9
05.	Penny	442.5
06th	Danneberg	435.3

Item	Jumper	country	Points
01	Walter Steiner	Switzerland	240.9
02	Hans-Georg Aschenbach	GDR	239.4
03	Dietrich fight	GDR	227.9
04th	Hans Schmid	Switzerland	227.7
05	Henry Glass	GDR	227.3
06th	Bernd Eckstein	GDR	226.7
07th	Tauno Käyhkö	Finland	226.3
08th	Alfred Grosche	BR Germany	225.2
09	Jochen Danneberg	GDR	224.8
10	Gari Napalkov	Soviet Union	224.1

innsbruck

• Date: January 2, 1974
• Country: Austria 
• Ski jump: Bergisel ski jump
• Spectators: 22,468

The last jump on Bergiselschanze took place in front of a record crowd before it was expanded for the 1976 Winter Olympics. And once again it lived from the duel between the GDR jumpers and the Swiss Schmid and Steiner. Hans-Georg Aschenbach was again the measure of all things and already led after the first round with his very good posture grades of 19 points despite the smaller width. He was able to repeat this performance in the second round. Hans Schmid jumped one meter further than Aschenbach in each round, but ultimately lost 6.7 points to the Thuringian because of the poor posture marks. For the first time, the Czechoslovaks with Rudolf Höhnl in sixth place and the Austrians with Reinhold Bachler in seventh place showed that they were capable of good performances. In the overall standings, the top three places presented the usual picture. With eleventh place in Innsbruck, Alfred Grosche even moved up to fourth place in the overall ranking.

Item	Jumper	Points
01.	Aschenbach	735.8
02.	Schmid	695.1
03.	Steiner	691.9
04th	Penny	673.6
05.	cornerstone	672.6
06th	Glass	666.6

Item	Jumper	country	Points
01	Hans-Georg Aschenbach	GDR	251.3
02	Hans Schmid	Switzerland	244.6
03	Walter Steiner	Switzerland	242.9
04th	Henry Glass	GDR	240.5
05	Bernd Eckstein	GDR	239.2
06th	Rudolf Höhnl	Czechoslovakia	236.6
07th	Reinhold Bachler	Austria	236.0
08th	Yuri Kalinin	Soviet Union	235.7
09	Dietrich fight	GDR	235.6
10	Stanislaw Pawlusiak	Poland	234.5

Bischofshofen

• Date: January 5, 1974
• Country: Austria 
• Hill: Paul-Ausserleitner-Schanze

Before the last competition, the tour victory itself was already taken, so many expected safety jumps from the leading Hans-Georg Aschenbach. In the end, it was still an exciting competition that was crowned by a new hill record. Man of the day was Aschenbach's team-mate Bernd Eckstein, who exceeded the nine-year-old hill record of Dalibor Moteljek by 1.5 m in the first round with 106 m. Only the Swiss Walter Steiner, up to then third overall, was able to follow somewhat with 103.5 with poorer posture marks. The dominance of the GDR jumpers was such that the four were among the top five after the first round. After the run-up was shortened by two meters for the second run, the Swiss Walter Steiner was able to make up ground with 100 meters, but in the end it was only enough for second place behind Eckstein. Hans-Georg Aschenbach came in third with a distance of 100.5 m in the second run. For the first time with Odd Grette, a Norwegian was also in the top ten, old master Gari Napalkow also achieved another top ten placement. With 14th place the youngster Toni Innauer was the best Austrian. With Eckstein's victory of the day and tenth place for Hans Schmid, who had been second overall, the overall ranking was swirled around again.

Item	Jumper	country	Points
01	Bernd Eckstein	GDR	237.4
02	Walter Steiner	Switzerland	235.7
03	Hans-Georg Aschenbach	GDR	235.0
04th	Dietrich fight	GDR	230.0
05	Henry Glass	GDR	227.3
06th	Odd Grette	Norway	223.7
07th	Gari Napalkov	Soviet Union	221.7
08th	Hiroshi Itagaki	Japan	219.3
09	Heinz Wosipiwo	GDR	218.5
10	Hans Schmid	Switzerland	214.7

Total status

Hans-Georg Aschenbach

With the second highest lead of 43 points to date, Hans-Georg Aschenbach won the tour with confidence, laying the foundation stone at the opening competition in Oberstdorf. The tragic hero was the Swiss Hans Schmid, who was the only jumper next to Aschenbach to always land in the top ten. Nevertheless, Bernd Eckstein overtook Schmid with a wafer-thin 0.5 points with his win in Bischofshofen and relegated the Swiss to the ungrateful fourth place. Henry Glass and Dietrich Kampf had to nibble on their failed start in Oberstdorf, otherwise they would have fought at least for third place. The outstanding team was the GDR representation under coach Dieter Neuendorf , which managed to get 5 jumpers into the top ten of the overall ranking, as in the previous year. It almost disappeared that last year's winner, Rainer Schmidt, only finished 18th in the overall ranking. With the two Swiss Schmid and Steiner, however, there were two equal competitors who could stand up to the GDR jumpers. Alfred Grosche represented the German colors in the top ten, it was also his best tour placement. Among the disappointments were the Norwegians, Austrians and also the Czechoslovaks, who did not manage to place a jumper in the top ten. The Thuringian was able to preserve the impressive form of Aschenbach until the Nordic World Ski Championships, in February 1974 in Falun he became world champion on both the normal and the large hill.

rank	Surname	nation	Overall rating	Colonel village	Garmisch- Partenk.	Inns- Bruckhaus	Episcopate hofen
01	Hans-Georg Aschenbach	GDR	970.5	245.1 / 01.	239.4 / 02.	251.3 / 01.	235.0 / 03.
02	Walter Steiner	Switzerland	927.5	208.1 / 14.	240.9 / 01.	242.9 / 03.	235.7 / 02.
03	Bernd Eckstein	GDR	910.0	206.7 / 16.	226.7 / 06.	239.2 / 05.	237.4 / 01.
04th	Hans Schmid	Switzerland	909.5	222.8 / 03.	227.7 / 04.	244.6 / 02.	214.7 / 10.
05	Henry Glass	GDR	893.9	198.8 / 25.	227.3 / 05.	240.5 / 04.	227.3 / 05.
06th	Dietrich fight	GDR	893.3	199.8 / 22.	227.9 / 03.	235.6 / 09.	230.0 / 04.
07th	Alfred Grosche	BR Germany	880.5	217.3 / 07.	225.2 / 08.	231.1 / 11.	206.9 / 19.
08th	Heinz Wosipiwo	GDR	876.8	225.0 / 02.	219.9 / 16.	213.4 / 28.	218.5 / 09.
09	Hiroshi Itagaki	Japan	869.5	210.4 / 10.	218.7 / 18.	221.4 / 17.	219.3 / 08.
10	Esko Rautionaho	Finland	868.0	221.3 / 04.	213.7 / 27.	224.7 / 14.	208.3 / 15.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Berliner Zeitung of December 31, 1973, p. 6
2. ↑ Berliner Zeitung of January 2, 1974 p. 11
3. ↑ Neues Deutschland from January 4, 1974 p. 4
4. ↑ Innauer again best . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna January 6, 1974, p. 13 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
5. ↑ Neues Deutschland from January 6, p. 8
6. ^ FIS results list from Oberstdorf
7. ^ FIS results list from Garmisch
8. ^ FIS results list from Innsbruck
9. ^ Fis result list from Bischofshofen

literature

• Willi Knecht: The divided arena. Presseverlag Bahr, Nuremberg 1968.