December 2001 - Nr. 12
High Attitude
German Ski Jumper and Trainer Go for
Olympic Gold in Salt Lake City
TWIG - Appropriately for a man who spends much of his time soaring over the competition, ski jumper Martin Schmitt has lofty aims for himself this winter. The 23-year-old native of Tannheim, in south-western Germany, is known on the ski-jump circuit as the Black Forest Eagle. He has become one of Germany’s best-known athletic figures and his success has spawned new interest and advertising investment in ski jumping in the country – "Schmitt mania" as some have called it. Schmitt is a four-time world champion and competed in the 1998 Nagano Olympic games, but, as he acknowledges, "I haven’t won an Olympic gold medal yet." He intends to fill the empty spot in his trophy chest at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City in February.
After a difficult start this autumn – the weather has not been kind to ski-jumpers: too warm in Salt Lake, too cold in Rovaniemi (north of the polar circle), too windy elsewhere – Schmitt and his trainer, Reinhard Heß, settled in at the Olympic training grounds in Lillehammer, Norway on Sunday (November 18). There Schmitt is honing his skills before the season opens. Heß said, "The conditions in Lillehammer are good. We want to get in … a good dozen jumps before we head to Finland" where Schmitt and his German team mates will compete at Kuopio.
Heß has been training German ski jumpers since 1994, when in his first year, he lead the team to Olympic gold. Since then, his protégés have won medals at every world championship and Winter Olympics. With seven titles, six second-place and five third-place medals, the jumpers are the most successful German ski division at present. Heß and Schmitt will work hard this winter to continue the tradition.
