With Gregor Deschwanden, Switzerland has a hot iron in the fire at the Four Hills Tournament this season. And the Poles also celebrate Central Switzerland.
While Austria is heading towards a historic low in the Ski World Cup, at least things are going well in ski jumping: at the start of the Four Hills Tournament there is an Austrian triple victory. They push World Cup leader Pius Paschke into fourth place.
Gregor Deschwanden is only slightly behind. The fifth-place finisher in the World Cup from Horw is one of the extended circle of favorites for the tour victory. Switzerland has never achieved this before, but for the first time in many years there is at least some hope again.
His opponents from Austria and Germany meanwhile have the advantage of home jumping. The number of Swiss fans, on the other hand, is manageable.
But Deschwanden can also count on the support of the ski jumping crazy Poles. When he is at the start, the Polish fans who have arrived become particularly loud.
After four tour victories in the last eight years, the ski jumping nation has no hopes of winning this year. Only Pawel Wasek made it into the second round at the start. So the Polish fans have changed course and are now keeping their fingers crossed for Gregor Deschwanden.
On Polish TV, the focus at the start of the tour in Oberstdorf is suddenly on the central Swiss. He responds, tries to give an interview in Polish and raves about Polish food. Background: Deschwanden is in a relationship with a Polish woman.
Reason enough for ski jumping enthusiasts to virtually adopt the Swiss. On X, formerly Twitter, you can find various fans debating in Polish about Deschwanden’s tour chances.
A crazy time for the 33-year-old. Ten years ago, the Lucerne native finished the World Cup in 27th place and was considered a top talent. But there were five plague years with hardly any points before he established himself in the top 30 again. Last season an exploit was achieved with two podium places, but the results remained inconsistent.
This season the button has now opened: three podium places and never worse than 11th place. At the age of 33, Gregor Deschwanden has really arrived – and not just to the delight of the Swiss fans.
He wants to go one better at the New Year’s competition in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. He definitely managed to qualify with fourth place.
