Karl Geiger and Co. will only see the Golden Eagle from afar.

Already on New Year's Day, when the flying Norwegian Halvor Egner Granerud again showed samples of his great skills and delighted the 20,000 spectators at the sold-out large Olympic hill in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the German ski jumpers had given up their eternal dream of winning the tournament.

The day after, with a view of the idyllically situated Riessersee, the team of the German Ski Association took stock of the half-time.

"It's pretty much going to be nothing with the overall victory," says Geiger.

Ralph Weitbrecht

sports editor.

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As fifth-placed in the overall ranking of the Four Hills Tournament, the man from Oberstdorf is 57.6 points behind Dominator Granerud, who had already triumphed at the start in Oberstdorf.

Geiger's plan, not only for the Bergisel jumping this Wednesday in Innsbruck (1.30 p.m., live on ARD and Eurosport), but also for the final on Epiphany in Bischofshofen: "I want to continue to work in a concentrated and structured way, so that one slips out, with it it really bangs.

We still have plans for the tour, because the tour is something special.

We don't want to undersell ourselves."

Geiger sits on the podium in the team hotel together with national coach Stefan Horngacher and teammate Andreas Wellinger, who is sixth in the overall standings, right behind Geiger in the top ten.

Monday is analysis, rest and travel day at the same time for the tour.

Qualification takes place on the Bergisel ski jump this Tuesday – under meteorological conditions that have little to do with winter and more to do with spring.

In the worst case, temperatures of up to 20 degrees will prevail on the notorious Bergisel.

The hairdryer makes it possible.

"The hill is actually in an unfavorable place," says Geiger, remembering competitions "that weren't easy.

I've already bitten my teeth a lot."

And now, in the new ski jumping year 2023 that has just begun?

"I'm going there a bit more curious.

I have nothing to lose.”

There isn't really much to win for the Germans on this tour, which is dominated by flying artists from Norway, Poland and Slovenia.

Whereby Andreas Wellinger says: “We are not far away.

We want to make life a bit harder for the top three.

We want to open the door and not just look in, but kick the door in if possible.” The gap to third-placed Piotr Zyla is manageable at a good six points.

And the German duo hasn't forgotten how to ski jump.

"We have all the tools in our box," says Olympic champion Wellinger, who knows from a large number of jumps in the complex sport: "Sometimes you feel like you're doing everything right, but you don't feel like you're making any progress." His plan: "With patience we will work out our lightness again.

The knot we talked about in Engelberg hasn't burst yet - but the loop is becoming looser and looser.

And at some point there comes a point when the knot completely unravels again.”

Sven Hannawald, the first Grand Slam winner in the history of the Four Hills Tournament, will in all likelihood continue to be the last German to get hold of the Golden Eagle.

It's been 21 years now.

In the time that followed, there were always high-flyers who were better than those from Team Germany.

Now again.

"We have the situation that two or three athletes are ahead of the rest of the world," says Horngacher.

"It's not just us that we hunt them."

The Austrians, who know five of their jumpers among the top 15, have been trying desperately to win the tournament for years.

The current best of them, Daniel Tschofenig, is 4.1 points behind Wellinger in the overall ranking.

That's another reason why Horngacher says, "that we definitely have two athletes in a select group who are allowed to chase the others.

One cannot speak of a negative balance, but of a positive one.”

Nevertheless, the 53-year-old ski jumping instructor is under no illusions.

“We don't need to worry about overall victory.

The air up there is very, very thin for everyone – including us.

We now have to see that we can get the Bergisel under control.”

A goal that Markus Eisenbichler has also set himself.

The German record world champion in Nordic title fights, who did not get past the qualifications in the current tour either in Oberstdorf or in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, will remain in Bischofshofen until the end.

"He's actually not far away," says his coach.

"He's doing well in training, but maybe he lost his nerve a bit in competition." More jumps and competitions are just the things that should help him get out of the doldrums.

"He needs a little time and rest.

It can happen very quickly with him,” hopes Horngacher.

In the case of tour dominator Granerud, things went very quickly recently.

The 26-year-old Norwegian found a perfect flight system at exactly the right time, which the competition looks at with envy and respect.

Hunters like Geiger and Wellinger can no longer pose a threat to him on this tour.