History of the Four Hills Tournament
The ski jumping friends from Innsbruck and Partenkirchen could certainly not have imagined what their idea would one day become when they first talked about creating a “ski jumping tour” in the cozy parlour of the “Maier” house in Partenkirchen in the summer of 1949. In the 2024/25 season, the Four Hills Tournament, which has long since become a legend, will celebrate its 73rd anniversary.
A look back: In the first few years after the Second World War, German ski jumpers were still prohibited by the International Ski Federation (FIS) from competing abroad. Nevertheless, the friends from Innsbruck did not miss the opportunity to invite their comrades from the Ski-Club Partenkirchen (SCP) to ski jumping competitions on the Seegrube near Innsbruck in the first post-war years - the Bergisel ski jump was still in ruins.
When the German Ski Association (DSV) was readmitted to the FIS, the SCP immediately organized its traditional New Year's ski jumping event with an international line-up on 1 January 1949, as it had done since 1921. Incidentally, in the post-war years 1946-1948, only German ski jumpers competed here. At the night ski jumping event on 17 May 1952 at the Seegrube, the “birth certificate” - i.e. the organizational plan for the “German-Austrian Ski Jumping Tournament”, or “the Tournament” for short - was finally on the table after a long, spirited discussion.
The three venues Partenkirchen (with the New Year's ski jumping event), Innsbruck and Bischofshofen were clear from the outset as tour participants, and the SCP was tasked with finding a second German partner due to the parity between the German and Austrian ski associations. Berchtesgaden, Füssen and Oberammergau were shortlisted, as these locations had modern ski jumps and well-established organization teams at the time. However, as the spectator catchment areas were the same as those of the founding clubs, the decision was made not to collaborate with these locations. So the original plan to get in touch with the Oberstdorf Ski Club was given preference.
The beginning
The “tour” finally began with the New Year's ski jumping in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 1953: in front of 20,000 enthusiastic spectators, six nations (in addition to the best German and Austrian jumpers, four Swedes, three Norwegians and three Swiss and five jumpers from Slovenia) took part in the tour opener. Norway's Asgeir Dölplads won with 78.5 and 81 meters ahead of Austria's Sepp “Buwi” Bradl. The second stop followed on January 4 with Oberstdorf, Erling Kroken (NOR) also won ahead of Bradl with 66.5 and 69.5 meters. On January 6, the Epiphany competition took place in Innsbruck. Bradl won with 72 and 73.5 meters ahead of the winner from Partenkirchen, Asgeir Dölplads. On January 11, 1953, the 1st tour was completed in Bischofshofen, with the winner being Halvor Naes (NOR, 90.5 and 94 meters). “Buwi” Bradl came second again, immortalizing himself in the chronicles as the first tour winner.
Many political and natural obstacles had to be overcome in order to keep the tour alive; after all, visas were still largely required to enter Germany and Austria or to travel from one country to another. This was not always easy for the organizers, the good cooperation with the local border authorities helped to overcome these hurdles again and again, in addition to imponderables such as the flag dispute with the former GDR and similar political difficulties. But even these were overcome. A much more difficult handicap was the weather, which did not always play along; after all, there were no machines to produce artificial snow and so searching for, finding and transporting snow from the most remote places was often a nerve-wracking activity for the organizers. But despite all the adversity, the tour grew from year to year to become an ever greater success.
Interesting facts
The two-time winners
After there had already been two winners in an individual competition three times in Toumee history - Eino Kirjionen and Aulis Kallakorpi (both Finland) in Oberstdorf in 1955, Per Bergerud (Norway) and Manfred Deckert (GDR) in Innsbruck in 1982, Jens Weissflog (Germany) and Andreas Felder (Austria) in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 1991 - the 54th Tournee saw an ex aequo overall result. At the 54th Tournament, ski jumpers Janne Ahonen (Finland) and Jakub Janda (Czech Republic) achieved an ex aequo overall result, scoring 1,081.5 points each after eight rounds.
The closest victory
The closest result was at the 5th tour in 1956/57, when Eino Kirjonen from Finland was only 0.7 points behind his compatriot Pentti Uotinen. There was a close decision at the 37th tour, when the winner Risto Laakonen (Finland) was followed by compatriot Matti Nykänen and Jens Weissflog, each 2.5 points behind in 2nd place.
The clearest victory
The biggest gap between the first and second-placed skiers in 2000/2001 was between Adam Malysz and Janne Ahonen with 104.4 points. Adam Malysz was also the first ski jumper ever to break the 1,000-point barrier at this tour with 1,045.9 points.
The first fiver
Janne Ahonen, who won the 56th Four Hills Tournament after the 47th, 51st, 53rd and 54th Tournaments, is the first ski jumper to be the overall winner of the Tournament five times. Before him, Jens Weissflog managed to win the tour four times. After 67 tours, there have therefore only been 49 different overall winners.
Most individual victories
Björn Wirkola (Norway) and Jens Weissflog lead the list of individual winners at the tour with ten victories each. They are followed by Janne Ahonen with nine first places.
The Grand Slam
Sven Hannawald is the first tour winner to win all four competitions in one tour. At the 50th tour, he won four times with the starting number 50. Germany (including the GDR) thus has the most tour winners with 16 victories. Finland followed with 15, Norway and Austria with ten winners each. After Hannawald, Kamil Stoch from Poland achieved the feat of winning all four competitions in the 2017/18 tour. The following year, Ryoyu Kobayashi from Japan also achieved the Grand Slam.
Narrowly missing the Grand Slam
A total of 18 ski jumpers have each achieved three individual victories in one year. Peter Prevc (SLO) last achieved this in 2015/16.
Three individual victories, but no tour success
Four ski jumpers (Ingolf Mork, Norway, 1970/71; Yukio Kasaya, Japan, 1971/72; Karl Schnabl, Austria, 1974/75 and Toni Innauer, Austria, 1975/76) even managed the feat of not winning the tour, although they each achieved three individual victories.
National heroes
Russia (Kamenski 1955/56) is the only nation to have won the Tour only once so far.
Hattrick
Björn Wirkola is the only person to have won the tour three times in a row (1966/67; 1967/68; 1968/69).
Compiled by Klaus Taglauer
Thank you very much
The progress
Naturally, the organizers of the tour adapted to the progress: As early as 1956, Bayerischer Rundfunk on ARD broadcast the New Year's ski jumping on television, thus contributing significantly to the popularity of the tour, and from 1960 the other stages of the tour were also broadcast on television (in Germany later alternately by ARD and ZDF). Today, up to 25 television stations broadcast the tour all over the world. With the qualification for the New Year's Ski Jumping 2000 on December 31, 1999, the cooperation with the public television stations in Germany initially ended. The German Ski Association signed a new contract with the leading broadcaster RTL, which ended in 2007. Since then, the tour has once again been broadcast by public television stations.
As early as 1962, computers began to be used to evaluate the results and as early as 1972, cooperation began with a sponsor, namely the company “Intersport”, which gave the tour its name for more than 25 years and contributed significantly to the success of the tour.
Technical and organizational innovations were mostly tested at the Tournament and were also used there first, such as video distance measurement. With only a few exceptions, in the past the tour has been held in the order Oberstdorf, Garmisch-Partenkirchen (1.1), Innsbruck and Bischofshofen (6.1).
Curiosities
Cancellation? We jump anyway
2nd Tournament 1953/54: The tour was canceled on 28.12.53 due to a lack of snow. Unaware of this decision, the Austrian team nevertheless traveled to Oberstdorf and lo and behold, it began to snow as soon as the ski jumpers arrived.
Yes, there was snow in abundance. Ski club officials and existing ski jumpers immediately began to prepare the hill. At the same time, the ski associations were informed by telegraph that the tour competitions would now be held in full after all. The airline SAS postponed the flight by half a day so that the ski jumpers from the Nordic countries could arrive on time.
Victory after a night out
4th Tournament 1955/56: Finnish ski jumper Silvenoinen drank the night before the New Year's ski jumping competition in Partenkirchen despite a ban. His team captain wanted to have him removed from the start list because of this, but gave in to the pleas of the whole team and postponed the necessary punishment.
The hungover jumper thanked the amnesty in his own way by winning the New Year's ski jumping competition.
No snow in Bischofshofen
The beginning of the 1955/56 ski season was characterized by a current lack of snow. While Oberstdorf, Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Innsbruck were able to raise the costs for a snow supply from high Alpine valleys, this was not possible in Bischofshofen, so the ski jumping took place on the Zinkenschanze in Hallein (longest jump 63.5 m).
Wind veiling in Oberstdorf
During the first Tournament competitions in Oberstdorf, Heini Klopfer, the successful ski jumper and hill builder, stood on the take-off table with the red flag (there were no traffic lights yet) and gave the jumpers the go-ahead. So that you couldn't see how strong the wind was blowing, he dipped the flag into the water so that it couldn't flutter.
Tourism association
6th Tour 1957/58: Another serious lack of snow caused the organizers considerable concern. In Bischofshofen, an attempt was made to collect the snow from the Radstadt Tauern Pass. The plan failed due to objections from the local tourist association.
The small amount of snow was just enough to prepare the newly built normal hill, where the competition was then held. The winner was the then dominant jumper Helmut Recknagel (GDR) with jumps of 54 and 58.5 meters.
Moravetz: When are the ski jumpers coming?
27th Tournament 1978/79: Due to a catastrophic drop in temperature in the night from 12/31/78 to 01/01/79, it was not possible to prepare the completely frozen ski jump in Partenkirchen into a jump-ready facility.
The legendary ZDF sports reporter Bruno Moravetz was on air for four hours without being able to explain a jump. He bridged the time with numerous ski jumping stories. The competition had to be postponed to January 2.
The functionary's crash
37th Tour 1988/89: The FIS technical delegate, race director at Holmenkollen, Torgeir Nordby (NOR), fell off the ski jump table in Garmisch-Partenkirchen while measuring it and broke his leg. He underwent surgery in the local hospital. The team captain of the Yugoslavian team Alojz Gorjanz stepped in as a replacement.
The first Tirolean victory after Andreas Hofer
48th Tournament 1999/2000: For the first time in many years, a Tirolean ski jumper, Andreas Widhölzl, wins on the Bergisel. Until then, the question was: Which Tyrolean last won on the Bergisel? Answer: Andreas Hofer.
Three jumpers make the Grand Slam
50th Tournament 2001/02: For the first time in 49 years, a ski jumper, namely the German Sven Hannawald, manages to win all four jumps during a tour. Kamil Stoch was the second jumper to do so in 2017/18 at the 66th tour. The following year, Ryoyu Kobayashi from Japan also achieved the Grand Slam and won all four competitions in the 2018/19 season.
One winner is not enough
54th Tour 2005/06: For the first time there are 2 overall winners at the Tour: Janne Ahonnen (FIN) and Jakob Janda (TCH) both achieve 1,081.5 points.
The first cancellation
56th tour 2007/08: The competition in Innsbruck had to be canceled due to a violent foehn storm. It was rescheduled for January 5th in Bischofshofen. Finland's Janne Ahonen becomes the first ski jumper to win the Four Hills Tournament for the 5th time.
The three Grand Slam winners
At the 2001/02 Four Hills Tournament, Sven Hannawald became the first jumper in history to win all four individual competitions. No athlete had ever managed this before and it took quite some time before anyone was able to repeat the feat: It was none other than “King Kamil”, the Polish skijumper Kamil Stoch, who won all four competitions at the 2017/ 2018 Four Hills Tournament. At the following 67th Four Hills Tournament, Ryoyu Kobayashi managed to win the Grand Slam for Japan.
The only double win
There was another novelty at the 54th Four Hills Tournament 2005/06: Janne Ahonen from Finland and Jakub Janda from the Czech Republic each scored 1081.5 points after eight rounds and for the first time in history there were two tour winners. Following the construction of the new ski jump in Partenkirchen in 2007, all four tour venues now have new ski jumping facilities.
About the persons
Of the founders Toni Glos, Emmerich “Putzi” Pepeunig (Innsbruck), Beppi Hartl, Franz Rappenglück (SCP), Andi Mischitz, Fred Triebner (Bischofshofen), Alfons Huber and Xaver Kaiser (Oberstdorf), the legendary Putzi Pepeunig was the last to be buried on March 20, 2000 at the age of 79 in the Innsbruck cemetery under his beloved Bergisel ski jump in Innsbruck. He played an active role in the tour until the last as Honorary Tour President.
Pepeunig's successor was Hans Ostler, the long-time former chairman of the Partenkirchen Ski Club (SCP), who was president of the tour until 2003. Ostler is one of the very few people who have been involved in the event as an official since the 1st Tournament. Ostler was replaced in 2003 by the former chairman of Bergisel Ski Jumping, Dietmar Hemerka, after the tour presidium decided that the tour presidency would alternate between Germany and Austria every three years. Hemerka was succeeded in the summer of 2006 by Claus-Peter Horle, the long-standing president of the Oberstdorf Ski Club, who was replaced by Alfons Schranz, Innsbruck, in 2010.
From summer 2015 to summer 2018, Michael Maurer, Chairman of the Partenkirchen Ski Club and the OC New Year's Ski Jumping, was the President of the Four Hills Tournament. He was succeeded by Johann Pichler from the Bischofshofen Ski Club, who held the office from summer 2018 to summer 2021. Pichler's successor and current President of the Four Hills Tournament is Dr. Peter Kruijer from SC Oberstdorf.