The German shouted: Ohne Telemark! This is how Adam Ma³ysz was deceived

• Kuopio – 1st place
• Kuopio – 2nd place
• Titisee-Neustadt – 1st Place
• Titisee-Neustadt – 2nd
• Villach – 1st place
• Villach – 1st place in the unofficial, individual results of the team, which Poland finished in third place.

He started the winter of 2001/2002 with total domination. It was a continuation of our jumper’s performance in the 2000/2001 season, when overnight he became the best in the world, and a small noise broke out in the country.

The German coach shouted “Ohne telemark!”

He came to Ma³ysz as a definite favorite. And he did win once. But only a day after he was cheated and the Polish team protested with nerves.

On December 15, 2001, at Gross-Titlis-Schanze, the leader of the World Cup was the best and did not make it to the podium. How did this happen?

Earlier, German coaches claimed that the Polish dominator gets too high marks from the judges. And in Engelberg, Reinhard Hess personally put pressure on the jurors when they gave notes.

– After my jump, the German coach standing on the judges’ tower shouted “ohne telemark”, meaning “without a telemark”. Although I did a telemark when landing, the judges suggested this shout and I got very low marks for the lack of this element – this is how Małysz remembers the final jump from that competition.

In the second round, he flew 135.5 meters, 3 meters further than the winner, Stephan Hocke, 2 meters further than the second Sven Hannawald and 1.5 meters further than the third Matti Hautamaeki. All in all, Malysz after such a flight, instead of being promoted from third place, fell to fourth.

The competition was won by Hocke, then an 18-year-old who had only one victory in his entire career in the World Cup. The layout of the top three is easy to understand by looking at the sum of the distances and the minimal differences in ratings from the judges.

1. Hocke 134 and 132.5 m – a total of 266.5 m, from the judges a total of 112.5 points
2. Hannawald 132 and 133.5 – 265.5 in total, 113 points from the judges
3. Hautamaeki 132 and 134 – 266 in total, 112 points from the judges

However, it is very surprising that Małysz, with 269 meters, was behind these three, because he received only 106.5 points from the judges. Let us emphasize that at that time there was no wind compensation system yet. The score consisted only of distance points and marks from the judges.

Our jumper actually suffered the biggest losses in the second jump. Back then, he collected only 51 points from the judges (three 17-point marks). Should they be that strict?

“A stylish jump, finished with a classic telemark landing” – assessed Stanisław Snopek. After a while, the commentator was surprised seeing the referee’s notes.

Adam Małysz, Engelberg 2001 screen z https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYwfGrU0hg0

Of course, Małysz did not land perfectly. But he clearly did telemark. It may not have been beautiful, and there were certainly problems with the departure after it. But it was enough for the judges to give 17.5 points, not 17 points, and Małysz would win the competition. Hocke was only 1.5 points ahead of him. The second Hannawald by 0.2 points and the third Hautamaeki by 0.1 points.

“We protested, but you can protest”

– I was surprised, because when it comes to distance, my jumps were the farthest – said Małysz. His final jump should certainly be rated higher. But the same can be said for the jump from the first series.

It is worth seeing Schmitt’s jump – after landing on 125.5 m, the German got two points from the judges, 18.5 and one on 19. Very high for someone with only the 15th distance in the series. On the other hand, Małysz was rated by half a point lower than the average Schmitt that day, despite the fact that Małysz landed with the telemark at 133.5 m – only half a meter from the hill record.

Adam Małysz, Engelberg 2001 screen z https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYwfGrU0hg0&t=989s

– We protested right after the competition. But you can protest, and the decisions are irrevocable – recalls Małysz’s coach at the time, and today the president of the Polish Ski Association.

However, Tajner pays less attention to judges or German coaches putting pressure on judges and more to Walter Hofer.

– Adam would win more than 39 competitions in the World Cup if he had a slightly different policy – says the former coach. – In Engelberg we lost an obvious victory, because the inruns were set too high. Adam was too strong for that. He shortened jumps and thus lost on the notes – explains the president.

– The people who ruled the World Cup did not care much about it. We felt that a player suddenly appeared who started to spoil the business. After all, RTL television got into the jumps that season. With a lot of money. There was a desire that Martin Schmitt would continue to rule, adds Tajner.

But Malysz continued to rule. A day later in Engelberg he did not give anyone a chance – he won with an advantage of 6 points over Simon Ammann, and the first jumper outside the podium – Alan Alborn from the USA – lost over 20 points to our champion.

And although in the following weeks we saw the shot of Sven Hannawald’s form (he won the Four Hills Tournament, winning all venues), and then Simon Ammann (he won two gold medals at the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City), the whole season belonged to Małysz. And another one, because in the winter of 2002/2003, the Pole won the third Crystal Ball in a row, which was not achieved by anyone else in the history of jumping.

The best hill in the world for us

Engelberg will be another World Cup ski jumping station this season. From Friday to Sunday, seven Poles will take part in Gross-Titlis-Schanze – Kamil,,, Andrzej Stękała, Jakub Wolny, Klemens Murańka and Paweł Wąsek. Qualifiers on Friday at 17, and the competitions on Saturday and Sunday at 4.

Gros-Titlis is a unique hill for Poles. In the history of the World Cup, we won as many as 20 podium places. We have not achieved such a result on any other facility in the world. In this statistic, even the Wielka Krokiew in Zakopane, where our jumpers enjoyed 18 podiums, is even worse.