Four Hills Tournament 1974/75

23rd Four Hills Tournament
winner
Tour winner	Willi Pürstl
Oberstdorf	Willi Pürstl
Garmisch-Partenkirchen	Karl Schnabl
innsbruck	Karl Schnabl
Bischofshofen	Karl Schnabl
Attendees
Nations	17th
athlete	85
← 1973/74	1975/76 →

The 23rd Four Hills Tournament in 1974/75 was a milestone, especially for the Austrian jumping team, because after eleven years as a place jumper, the national team rose like a "phoenix from the ashes". Under the leadership of Baldur Preiml , this tour was the beginning of the Austrian jumper wonder.

Eleven years after the last Austrian victory of the day in Bischofshofen , which Baldur Preiml had achieved himself, there was another Austrian victory of the day by his protégé Willi Pürstl , who also ensured the first Austrian overall victory in 21 years ( Sepp Bradl won the first Four Hills Tournament in 1953). The dominance of the red-white-red eagles was shown in all result lists.

Austrian jumpers were among the top 10 16 times. All four daily victories (Willi Pürstl in Oberstdorf , Karl Schnabl in Garmisch-Partenkirchen , Innsbruck , Bischofshofen) and the first three places in the overall ranking were won by the new Austrian super jumpers.

The jumping in Oberstdorf took place on December 29th, the jumping in Garmisch-Partenkirchen on January 1st and the jumping in Innsbruck on January 3rd. The closing event in Bischofshofen was held on January 6th.

Attendees

Many teams used the pre-Olympic season to introduce new athletes to the big hills. With the Czechoslovaks the veterans Raška and Matouš had resigned, only Rudolf Höhnl was still represented from the golden generation of jumpers around Raška. The Japanese started with young athletes, with the Norwegians, apart from Johan Sætre, none of the previous season's athletes were back in the squad. The Austrians changed their coach from Max Golser to Baldur Preiml in the summer of 1974 . He tried to use new training methods and new material to get the Austrian ski eagles out of their long shadowy existence. In addition to veterans like Bachler or Wallner , Preiml relied on talents like Toni Innauer , Willi Pürstl or Karl Schnabl . The experts only agreed on the point that the outstanding selection of the last winter sports season - the GDR representation - would have a significant say in winning the tour. The top favorite from this strong team was double world champion and last year's winner Hans-Georg Aschenbach . The performance of the GDR jumpers was so enormous internally that, surprisingly, last year's third Bernd Eckstein was not taken into account by the selection trainer Dieter Neuendorf . The Swiss selection had to contend with a major handicap. Last year's runner-up and co-favorite Walter Steiner was unable to take part in the tour due to an injury, as he tore a ligament during training on the ski jump in Gstaad in November 1974 .

nation	Athletes
BR Germany	Alfred Grosche , Sepp Schwinghammer , Rudi Tusch , Toni Angerer , Peter Dubb
GDR	Henry Glass , Rainer Schmidt , Heinz Wosipiwo , Hans-Georg Aschenbach , Dietrich Kampf , Jochen Danneberg , Dietmar Aschenbach , Eberhard Seifert
Austria	Reinhold Bachler , Willi Pürstl , Hans Wallner , Hans Millonig , Karl Schnabl , Edi Federer , Alois Lipburger , Alfred Pungg
Finland	Kari Ylianttila , Esko Rautionaho , Jouko Törmänen , Paavo Maunu , Harri Blumén
France	Jacques Gaillard , Gilbert Poirot , Philippe Jacoberger , Michel Roche
Italy	Lido Tomasi , Marcello Bazana , Ermeis De Crignis
Japan	Takao Ituo , Kazuhiro Akimoto , Koji Kakuta , Manabu Ono , Hideyuki Kuwabara
Yugoslavia	Marian Prelovsek , Branko Dolhar , Bogdan Norčič , Janez Demsar , Stane Rakar , Danilo Pudgar
Canada	Peter Wilson , Richard Grady , Richard Graves , Paul Martin , Lyle Speers
Norway	Kai Solbustad , Johan Sætre , Dag Fossum , Finn Halvorsen , Odd Hammernes , Per Bergerud , Odd Brandsegg
Poland	Wojciech Fortuna , Aleksander Stołowski , Adam Krzysztofiak , Stanisław Bobak
Sweden	Lennart Elimä , Christer Karlsson
Switzerland	Hans Schmid , Ernst von Grünigen , Robert Moesching , Ernst Egloff
Soviet Union	Juri Kalinin , Alexej Petrow , Dmitri Abramow , Alexei Borowitin , Sergei Suslikow
Czechoslovakia	Rudolf Höhnl , Karel Kodejška , Leoš Škoda , Jindřich Balcar , Břetislav Novák , František Novák
Hungary	Gyula Henyel , Istvan Roman
United States	Ron Steele , Greg Windsperger , Tom Dargay , Gene Burmeister , Terry Kern , Jim Denney

Oberstdorf

• Date: December 29, 1974
• Time: 12:00 p.m.
• Country: BR Germany 
• Hill: Schattenbergschanze

The turbulent opening competition ended with a big surprise. It was not the double world champion Hans-Georg Aschenbach or one of his teammates from the favored GDR team that determined what happened, but the Austrian eagles under their new coach Baldur Preiml. Significantly, he was the last Austrian to win an individual competition. In gusty winds, the 19-year-old Willi Pürstl, who had not previously been noticed by his top positions, achieved the surprise victory with two stable jumps of 99 and 97 m. No less surprising was the Polish Bobak's second place. The resurgent tour winner from 1973, Rainer Schmidt from the GDR, fought his way to third place. There was not much left of the strength of his team-mates last year, only Heinz Wosipiwo still made it into the top ten. Hans-Georg Aschenbach only finished 20th. There was an increase in form among the Norwegians, who with Halvorsen and Saetre brought two jumpers into the top ten. The joy in the ÖSV camp was overflowing. With new materials for the jump suits and shaft shoes with heel wedges, the Austrians jumped with the world's best after a long dry spell. In addition, according to his own statements, head coach Preiml had studied the specialist literature from the country of the main competitor GDR extensively. In addition, there was obviously his motivational skills, which formed a team from the previously average athletes that very soon bore the name of the ski jumping wonder team. In addition to Pürstl's victory of the day, Edi Federer, who was largely unknown until then, was sixth, while Bachler came in twelfth place. Nevertheless, the joy was not unclouded. The greatest Austrian talent Toni Innauer had a hard crash in the first round and had to retire with a concussion. Even with the Finn Kari Ylianttila the audience had to hold their breath; he was already falling on the inrun tower. After the jump, a confused GDR team remained behind, which did not yet know how to deal with the new performance of the Austrians.

Item	Jumper	country	Points
01	Willi Pürstl	Austria	217.4
02	Stanislaw Bobak	Poland	210.9
03	Rainer Schmidt	GDR	210.6
04th	Finn Halvorsen	Norway	203.0
05	Johan Sætre	Norway	200.9
06th	Edi Federer	Austria	200.5
07th	Yuri Kalinin	Soviet Union	199.3
08th	Paavo Maunu	Finland	198.8
09	Heinz Wosipiwo	GDR	194.6
10	Hans Schmid	Switzerland	193.8
11	Karel Kodejška	Czechoslovakia	193.4
12	Reinhold Bachler	Austria	192.8
13	Adam Krzysztofiak	Poland	190.5
14th	Alexei Petrov	Soviet Union	189.1
15th	Dmitry Abramov	Soviet Union	187.8

Garmisch-Partenkirchen

• Date: January 1, 1975
• Time: 12:00 p.m.
• Country: BR Germany 
• Hill: Large Olympic hill

The eagle flight show from Austria also continued at the New Year's jump. But this time another youngster was in focus, the only 20-year-old Karl Schnabl. But with the Finn Kari Ylianttila he had an equal opponent who even led after the first round. However, Schnabl countered with a 93 m set, which Ylianttila could only oppose 90.5 m. In the end, both jumpers separated a wafer-thin 0.2 points. Behind the Finn, three Austrians came in, including Pürstl and Federer, who thus remained on the podium in the overall standings. The performance of the GDR selection was better in Garmisch than in Oberstdorf; Last year's winner Aschenbach now jumped into the top ten. Since the best GDR jumper Rainer Schmidt took sixth place with only a small point gap, it was still enough to achieve an excellent second place in the overall standings.

Intermediate result after 2 jumps
Item	Jumper	Points
01.	Pürstl	438.1
02.	Schmidt	430.9
03.	Federer	422.1
04th	Bobak	416.9
05.	Kalinin	408.5
06th	Saetre	407.8

Item	Jumper	country	Points
01	Karl Schnabl	Austria	226.2
02	Kari Ylianttila	Finland	226.0
03	Hans Millonig	Austria	222.2
04th	Edi Federer	Austria	221.6
05	Willi Pürstl	Austria	220.7
06th	Rainer Schmidt	GDR	220.3
07th	Hans-Georg Aschenbach	GDR	220.1
08th	Alois Lipburger	Austria	216.2
09	Sergei Suslikov	Soviet Union	213.5
10	Jochen Danneberg	GDR	209.4
11	Alexei Borowitin	Soviet Union	209.3
12	Yuri Kalinin	Soviet Union	209.2
13	Henry Glass	GDR	209.1
14th	Karel Kodejška	Czechoslovakia	208.8
15th	Per Bergerud	Norway	207.6

innsbruck

• Date: January 3, 1975
• Time: 1 p.m.
• Country: Austria 
• Ski jump: Bergisel ski jump
• Spectators: 30,000–40,000

Over 30,000 spectators experienced a much-acclaimed triple victory for Austria on the converted Olympic hill for the games in the following year. The renewed winner of the day crowned his success with the new hill record of 100 m, which he set up in the second round. Only his compatriot Hans Millonig jumped further, but after jumping 101 m he had to reach into the snow and thus got point deductions. Without these deductions, it would still have made it into the top ten. But even so, the overwhelming power of the Preiml protégés was overwhelming. Six of the eight jumpers in the Austrian selection made it into the top ten, including Federer in second place and Pürstl in fifth place, both of which were further ahead in the overall ranking. However, the experts gave Edi Federer greater chances of overall victory. Rainer Schmidt, until then the best GDR jumper, lost valuable points in Innsbruck and slipped into third place in the overall standings. It was much worse for Schmidt's team-mate Hans-Georg Aschenbach . The double world champion and co-favorite had fought his way up to eighth place in the overall standings after a good New Year's competition. But in the first run he couldn't cope with the slow inrun on the Bergisel and landed at 67 m, the lowest distance of the entire day. With the third largest daily distance of 97.5 m he proved his ability in the second run, but it only meant 49th place in the daily standings. In the overall ranking, Aschenbach was accordingly passed through to 24th place, the minimal hopes for a podium place were finally over.

Intermediate result after 3 jumps
Item	Jumper	Points
01.	Pürstl	664.1
02.	Federer	655.4
03.	Schmidt	646.8
04th	Bobak	642.2
05.	Schnabl	636.3
06th	Kodejska	628.6

Item	Jumper	country	Points
01	Karl Schnabl	Austria	239.6
02	Edi Federer	Austria	233.3
03	Hans Wallner	Austria	231.3
04th	Karel Kodejška	Czechoslovakia	226.4
05	Willi Pürstl	Austria	226.0
06th	Stanislaw Bobak	Poland	225.3
07th	Jochen Danneberg	GDR	224.8
08th	Rudolf Höhnl	Czechoslovakia	224.3
09	Reinhold Bachler	Austria	222.7
10	Dietrich fight	GDR	221.7
11	Alfred Pungg	Austria	217.8
12	Rainer Schmidt	GDR	215.9
13	Jindrich Balcar	Czechoslovakia	213.9
14th	Takao Ito	Japan	213.3
15th	Esko Rautionaho	Finland	209.3

Bischofshofen

• Date: January 6, 1975
• Time: 1 p.m.
• Country: Austria 
• Hill: Paul-Ausserleitner-Schanze
• 20,000 spectators

In bad, foggy weather, the jury felt compelled to shorten the run-up in the first round. Not all jumpers of the young Austrian team could cope with these conditions, so that other athletes intervened in Bischofshofen, above all the strong Karel Kodejska from Czechoslovakia. But Hans-Georg Aschenbach also wanted to forget his dropout in Innsbruck and jumped into the top ranks in the first round. Nevertheless, even after round one, Karl Schnabl was an Austrian at the front. After a run-up extension before the second round, which now also allowed significantly larger distances over 100 m, the competition went all out again. Rudolf Höhnl set the hill record of 106 m. In an effort to secure a podium place in the overall standings, Rainer Schmidt also sailed 105 m and Pole Bobak even 108 m. But since both had to reach into the snow, both fell behind in the daily standings and could no longer intervene in the overall standings. The day's winner Karl Schnabl ultimately countered the attacks of the competition with a 104 m jump with very good posture marks, which ultimately meant the third day win in a row. Hans-Georg Aschenbach was able to celebrate a halfway conciliatory end to the tour with third place.

Item	Jumper	country	Points
01	Karl Schnabl	Austria	227.0
02	Karel Kodejška	Czechoslovakia	224.6
03	Hans-Georg Aschenbach	GDR	221.1
04th	Rudolf Höhnl	Czechoslovakia	220.9
05	Edi Federer	Austria	218.8
06th	Hans Millonig	Austria	215.7
07th	Willi Pürstl	Austria	214.9
08th	Jochen Danneberg	GDR	211.3
09	Dietrich fight	GDR	210.0
10	Eberhard Seifert	GDR	208.8
11	Philippe Jacoberger	France	206.4
12	Yuri Kalinin	Soviet Union	206.0
13	Sergei Suslikov	Soviet Union	205.3
14th	Alfred Grosche	BR Germany	204.7
15th	Koii Kakuta	Japan	204.2

Final score

With a brilliant comeback, the Austrian jumpers reported back to the top of the world. Not the favored GDR jumpers around last year's winner Hans-Georg Aschenbach, but the protégés of the new selection coach Baldur Preiml left their mark on the tour. For the first time in the tour's history, one selection managed to win on all four hills. The dominance of this selection was also impressive, with six athletes among the top fifteen. After his opening victory, places in the top ten were enough for the overall winner, Pürstl, to secure the overall victory. But this was also due to the fact that the three-time winner Karl Schnabl fell in Oberstdorf and only took 35th place. Even a place in the top twenty would have been enough to safely win the overall standings. In addition to the change of coach, new materials for skis, shoes and suits were the key to success. These innovations, which were introduced by the Austrians with a view to the 1976 Olympic Games, caused a lot of discussion, but initially successfully caught the competition by surprise. The GDR team was undoubtedly one of the defeated, the best representative of which, Rainer Schmidt, came in sixth. With all the euphoria surrounding the so-called ski jumping miracle team, the strong performances of Poland's Bobak with fifth place and the Czechoslovaks Kodejška (4th) and Höhnl (7th) went a bit under.

rank	Surname	nation	Overall rating	Colonel village	Garmisch- Partenk.-	Inns- bruck	Episcopate hofen
01	Willi Pürstl	Austria	879.0	217.4 / 01.	220.7 / 05.	226.0 / 05.	214.9 / 07.
02	Edi Federer	Austria	874.2	200.5 / 06.	221.6 / 04.	233.3 / 02.	218.8 / 05.
03	Karl Schnabl	Austria	863.3	170.5 / 35.	226.2 / 01.	239.6 / 01.	227.0 / 01.
04th	Karel Kodejška	Czechoslovakia	855.2	193.4 / 11.	208.8 / 14.	226.4 / 04.	224.6 / 02.
05	Stanislaw Bobak	Poland	839.4	210.9 / 02.	206.0 / 18.	225.3 / 06.	197.2 / 22.
06th	Rainer Schmidt	GDR	834.4	210.6 / 03.	220.3 / 06.	215.9 / 12.	187.6 / 30.
07th	Rudolf Höhnl	Czechoslovakia	831.7	180.9 / 24.	205.6 / 22.	224.3 / 08.	220.9 / 04.
08th	Jochen Danneberg	GDR	829.2	183.7 / 21.	209.4 / 10.	224.8 / 07.	211.3 / 08.
09	Yuri Kalinin	Soviet Union	821.7	199.3 / 07.	209.2 / 12.	207.2 / 19.	206.0 / 12.
10	Hans Wallner	Austria	821.6	186.3 / 17.	204.6 / 24.	231.3 / 03.	199.4 / 20.
11	Dietrich fight	GDR	817.5	185.2 / 19.	200.6 / 34.	221.7 / 10.	210.0 / 09.
12	Johan Sætre	Norway	817.4	200.9 / 05.	206.9 / 17.	208.2 / 17.	201.4 / 17.
13	Hans Millonig	Austria	810.8	167.4 / 37.	222.2 / 03.	205.5 / 22.	215.7 / 06.
14th	Hans-Georg Aschenbach	GDR	807.5	184.5 / 20.	220.1 / 07.	181.4 / 49.	221.1 / 03.
15th	Reinhold Bachler	Austria	806.3	192.8 / 12.	203.4 / 27.	222.7 / 09.	187.4 / 31.

literature

• Jens Jahn , Egon Theiner : Encyclopedia of Ski Jumping . 1st edition. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 2004, ISBN 3-89784-099-5 , p. 226-227; 273-274 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Only a GDR jumper wins . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna December 28, 1974, p. 19 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
2. ↑ Berliner Zeitung. December 29, 1974, p. 4.
3. ↑ New times. February 8, 1977, p. 6.
4. ↑ On the right track . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna December 31, 1974, p. 20 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized version).
5. ↑ Berliner Zeitung. December 30, 1974, p. 4.
6. ↑ New Germany. January 2, 1975, p. 5.
7. ↑ Springer miracles in series . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna January 4th 1975, p. 13 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
8. ↑ New Germany. January 4, 1975, p. 5.
9. ↑ New Germany. January 7, 1975, p. 5.