FIS embarrassment. Eisenbichler couldn’t stand it anymore and went to the camera. “F*** that!”

In Bad Mitterndorf in the first competition of the World Cup weekend there were extremely long flights, like those of 243 meters by Timi Zajc, which he had to shorten already from point K of the Kulm hill, but there were also definitely too short for a competition for aviators. The shortest – only 117 meters – jumped Pius Paschke.

Prevc boomed and the jury went too low. The players weren’t doing well

The German’s attempt coincided with the most controversial moment of the competition. Nearly halfway through the first series on the landing the wind was getting stronger and stronger – in many cases close to a meter per second in the average measurement. Already after a jump of fourteenth on the start list of Gregor Deschwanden from Switzerland on 230.5 meters (0.99 meters per second under skis), the bar from tenth, from which the competition started, was lowered to eighth. And after a great flight of Domen Prevc, starting from “17” on 236 meters, the jury went even lower – up to the sixth starting platform.

The competition management acted as if Prevc was not one of the most skilled aviators, but a theoretically weak jumper who got carried away by the conditions. And it wasn’t. The wind did not pick up at all, and the next competitors – mostly average jumpers on mammoths – could not cope with even the boules of the Kulm hill: Giovanni Bresadola scored 126, Stephan Leyhe 147.5, Constantin Schmid 149.5, and the aforementioned Pius Paschke 119 meters. All did not make it into the second series.

Schmid angry, Eisenbichler couldn’t stand it. “They made a fool of me”

The jury reacted only after the jumps of nine competitors, when the experienced Robert Johansson from Norway reached only 119 meters and also said goodbye to the competition. He and the other “cut” jumpers had no chance. The jury suddenly woke up and returned to the eighth beam, which they held until the end of the first series. Several trainers in the tower just laughed at this decision.

First of all, Markus Eisenbichler was angry after the competition. In the first series, released from the sixth beam, he gained only 200.5 meters and after the competition he couldn’t stand it. After the final jump on 209.5 meters he went to the camera and pointed to the top of the hill. – No kidding, I was really worried about this. F*** it! – he spoke furiously not even in German, but in Bavarian. With these words, he implied that the whole situation also affected his second attempt, for which he was unable to concentrate properly.

Then he also hit the jury in an interview with ZDF television. “I felt like they made a fool out of me when they raised the beam just a jump over me,” said the German. “From a beam as low as six, if it’s not windy, it’s hard to fly away,” he added.

– I’m pretty angry. My jump wasn’t optimal, but nothing worked from that beam. It gets uninteresting when we ride so low – assessed Constantin Schmid.

Jelar had to scrub with skis. “I don’t know who I pissed off up there”

However, the Germans are not the only players criticizing such a low beam setting. “I don’t know who I pissed off up there, but I didn’t get any support. I’ve already shown that I know how to fly. And they still consider me a second-class jumper – said Ziga Jelar, winner of the small Crystal Globe for the Ski Flying World Cup last season, quoted by the RTV Slovenija television portal.

– Maybe I still need to improve and “surprise” someone, prove that they are wrong. I am calm, relaxed, I enjoy the flights, but in the next competitions someone is preventing me from reaching the highest places – added the Slovene, who after jumps on 212.5 and 200 meters finished the competition in seventh place.

For both Saturday flights, Jelar had to scrub the snow with the backs of his skis for a long time – from about 150 metres. “I don’t know if it would be possible with a worse jump,” he wrote, posting a video of the final jump from the perspective of the hill on Twitter.

Obvious mistake and embarrassment. FIS is already getting hit from every side

“When conversion factors for wind and beam were introduced to ski jumping, it seemed that the competition would be smooth and fair. But years have passed, and competitors are “cut out” by the wind without any response from the jury to changing conditions” – after the competition in Zakopane .

From that moment, there is basically no competition, unless there is a situation in which the jury makes even a slight error. The one on Kulm strongly influenced the course of the competition and even prevented some jumpers from getting a good result. It is so obvious that it can be considered as embarrassing activists. Criticism does not come only from – as the International Ski Federation (FIS) claims – Polish experts or journalists who are overly sensitive to jumping and looking for conspiracies, but directly from the jumpers.

Maybe such a voice will finally have some influence on the management of the competitions and draw attention to the incompetence of some responsible for controlling the competitions. Sunday’s individual competition in Austria is scheduled for 14:15. Qualifying will start at 12:45. Live coverage on Sport.pl and in the Sport.pl LIVE application.