Ski jumping at the 1956 Winter Olympics
In the XII. 1956 Olympic Games in Cortina d' Ampezzo was held for the seventh time in a competition in ski jumping.
The competition was the last competition of the Winter Games on February 5 at the newly constructed Italia ski jump instead, the critical point was 72 meters. The competition ended with a Finnish double victory, in which Antti Hyvärinen triumphed before Aulis Kallakorpi. After the first passage led the East German Glaß Harry, who finished third in the final rankings and thus won the bronze medal.
For the first time in the Olympic ski history which until then belonged to the Norwegian was beaten. This had placed all six Olympic champion in the discipline until 1956. Also, the Soviet team, which for the first time at the Winter Olympics went to the start, do not meet the criteria set in advance of expectations and did not intervene in the decision.
- 2.1 Regulations
- 2.2 German Trials
- 2.3 Initial Situation
- 2.4 race course and outcome
Preparations
Jumping Hills
Before the Olympic hill existed in Zuel, a suburb of Cortina d' Ampezzo, already two other ski equipment. The second jump, which in 1939 had replaced the first system, already bore the name Italia. It was pulled from April 1955 to make way for the Olympic ski jump which was scheduled at this time as the " most modern ski jump in the world." The architect of this system were the Italian Guglielmo Holzner and the Swiss Reinhard Straumann, which the International Ski Federation (FIS ) nominated as a technology expert. In addition, three other Italian engineers, Piero Pozzati, Enzo Mantovani and Luciano Berti worked on the construction. During the construction of Trampolino Italia some elements were first used for a ski-jump. Thus, the architects developed as a start-up in parabolic form, which the athletes less slowed than a straight. In addition, they modified parts of the spout to hold the landing pressure on the athletes as low as possible. This was for jumps 20-72 meters almost the same ( about 82 kilograms). When the critical point is reached, the pressure increased rapidly, so there about 72 meters more difficult for the athletes was at lengths to land safely after their attempt.
The FIS Officer Reinhard Straumann showed in his reports, which opened in December 1955 Italia hill convinced: it is an " architectural masterpiece" and "could be considered in all respects as illustrative ." Although the Technical Delegate Pelle Ohman saw some small weaknesses such as a miscalculation at the starting points, which offset the organizers by some makeshift measures, but otherwise praised the jump and picked this particular technical innovations. In several Olympic flashbacks the Trampolino Italia with the ski jump at Holmenkollen was compared to the 1952 decision had taken place. As a major difference was the capacity of the two plants: While at Holmenkollen nearly 200,000 spectators had found a place, the hill in Cortina was designed for a maximum of 46,000 visitors.
Organization
As a race director for the jumping competition acted Guglielmo Holzner, the architect of the Italia hill. Holzner was also a member of the twelve-member Olympic Executive Committee and head of the relevant Sub-Commission for ski jumping. Next to him sat on the jury of eight other men, including the five Judges, including the former German champion Erich Recknagel counted. The Jury met before and after the competition in a space provided - in which on other days also Bobjury advised - but close at hand with their decisions not enter the competition.
Competition
Rules
All started athletes completed two jumps that were assessed with a wide number of points and a style note. To determine the attitude score, gave five Jumping Judges their rating ( maximum 20 points). The highest and the lowest score were deleted; the other three scores were added together the style note, which could be more than 60 points. This attitude and length alike were included in the overall rating, the maximum wide score was likewise 60 The number of points awarded in both rounds each of the athlete who jumped furthest. For every meter that an athlete reached less, it was a point of the maximum number of points deducted, according to half a meter of a halfway point. In this way, two scores were calculated, which were added in both rounds to obtain the intermediate or final standings.
German Trials
At the Olympic Games from 1956 to 1964, the athletes of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic were the total German team. This joint team was only during the Olympic Games; in the meantime trained athletes completely independent. Hans Renner was the head coach for the East German athletes Harry Glaß and Werner Lesser. It was agreed to compile the joint team from the four best jumpers in four competitions. In addition to a competition in Oberhof were the three first competition of the Four Hills Tournament 1955/56 in Oberstdorf, Garmisch and Innsbruck.
Initial situation
Up to the Olympic Winter Games 1952 in Oslo, the Norwegian took the leading role in the international ski jumping: They won all six Olympic competitions, while 14 of 18 possible medals. However, in the next four years, the Finnish team improved steadily supplanted the Norwegian team finally - also on account of their particularly dominated fish style - from the leadership position. 1954 in Falun triumphed with Matti Pietikäinen for the first time a Finn at a regular Nordic World Ski Championships, [note 2] Hemmo Silvennoinen a year later won the Four Hills Tournament. In other international jumping of winter in 1954/55 reached the German front placements, such as the 22- year-old Max Bolkart, the only one point missed the victory in the preparation competition in Cortina. Soviet athletes, particularly the Georgian Koba Zakadse, who decided in January 1956 to compete in Innsbruck, one of his first international jumping for themselves were assessed also high. The main difficulty of the Soviet Springer, which reached large distances regularly, was the landing for which they usually received prints in the style of touch. Zakadse, which the German sports journalist Harry Valérien before the Olympics, referred to as "perfect ski jumpers " with " excessive [m ] courage ", was optimistic: He'll achieve a high score if he, "the only two remain, and not [ ... ] by the Discontinued wiggle ".
Overall, the Finnish ski jumper applicable immediately prior to the Olympic Games as the most promising early contender, especially as the two best Norwegian Arnfinn Bergmann and Torbjørn Falkanger - the gold and silver medalist at the Games of 1952 - due to illness or injury their participation canceled it. Because of this favorite position, there was a team-internal dispute over the position within the team, which is made clear about the launch sites. As Lasse Johannesen, who had the young Finnish team formed as coach two years ago, was unhappy with Antti Hyvärinen and accused him of temperament and too little risk-taking, he threw the 23 -year-olds in an early start group. The three years older Aulis Kallakorpi should start as the last fin and secure as the favorite Eino Kirjonen and Hyvärinen backwards. The fourth athlete in the team was Hemmo Silvennoinen, the Four Hills Tournament winners 1954 / 55th He complained after the Olympic jumping in a Finnish newspaper that he - may because of the bickering in the team did not have to sleep - as well Kirjonen and Kallakorpi. This had prevented a better result than the ultimately ranked tenth for him.
Race course and outcome
Date: February 5, 1956 ( starting at 11 clock )
The weather conditions during the last race of the Winter Olympics in 1956 were exceptionally good: Unlike the training it was windless, the snow was compact and fast, so the competition proceeded without external interference. The competition was opened by the Italian Enzo Perin with a jump of 67 meters. Of the first 20 athletes none surpassed the 80 -meter mark, neither the Finns Hemmo Silvennoinen still the winner of the Nordic Combined, Sverre Stenersen from Norway, succeeded in a trial of this length, which was necessary for a place in the top five athletes. With the # 21 Antti Hyvärinen reached 81 meters and took over after a successful telemark landing the lead position. Failed at this power shortly thereafter Koba Zakadse, the distant fell despite a jump of 80.5 meters because of a faulty landing in the standings, as well as Hyvärinens teammate, the third fin Eino Kirjonen. Only the German Max Bolkart, who completed 29 as his jump, came up with the same score as the Finn. The only athletes who scored during the first pass in both the wide- points as well as the style touch to the best, the Germans were Harry Glaß - which was surprisingly in the lead - and Bolkart and the two Finns Hyvärinen and Aulis Kallakorpi. It had Glaß and Kallakorpi, both of which had landed at 83.5 meters, shown with the directly successive start numbers 46 and 47, the longest jumps. Similarly, although far also jumped the Russian Nikolai Kamensky; However, he crashed on landing and therefore broke the competition after the first round from. This handle not a Soviet athletes in the decision to a medal ranks. The Norwegians, of whom the tied Arne Hoel and Sverre stallvik best were as eleventh in the competition, it also did not play a role.
As the athletes started in the same order as in the first attempt in the second period, Antti Hyvärinen put the first of the four candidates winning a length in front. Despite a shortened start-up [note 3] he jumped to 84 meters, which showed the longest jump of the entire day. The jump, which was designated in Olympia flashbacks as " something unique " or " truly Olympic Flight ", also received by the adjudicators, the highest award in this competition style touch. None of the remaining competitors reached the length Hyvärinens: Max Bolkart, who had been tied after the first round with the Finn jumped 2.5 meters shorter; Harry Glaß and Aulis Kallakorpi landed at 80.5 meters. The two Germans Bolkart and Glaß was attested in retrospect, their jumps were " paralyzed " or was " powerless "; unlike Hyvärinen it was not possible for them to increase in the second round. Kallakorpi sat down by almost better style note in the final standings in front of Harry Glaß and thus completed the Finnish double success. The third best Finn Eino Kirjonen improved its width at the second attempt from 78.5 to 81 meters and finally finished seventh.
Review and critique
With the double victory, the Finnish ski jumpers had clearly maintained its leadership position. Especially important for their success was that been "spontaneous Increase in the final round ," wrote the Austrian journalist Kurt Egger in Bern Kurt Jeschkos Olympic Review. This ability was the German athletes who were otherwise have been missed par. Nevertheless presented Bern Egger a " Central European intrusion " into the " jump fortress ' Scandinavia ' fixed. He cited also the sixth of the Swiss Andreas Däscher and eighth of the German Werner Lesser. In addition to the winners, the Central Europeans and the Finns, Austrians also saw several losers in the first place, the Norwegians, the "failure [ ... ] the professional world a mystery simply" is. Even the Soviet and the U.S. team as well as various smaller teams knüpften not connect to the previously provided services and, therefore, were a disappointment. The acting as Judges Oberhofer Erich Recknagel drew as a conclusion that the new aerodynamic style fish have finally prevailed. In it, he saw the problem of Norwegians: You have not yet switched to the new technology and therefore could not reach the far reaches of the Finns and Europeans. Hans Renner, the supervisor of the East German athletes, [note 4] stated that the reason for the success of the East German Springer mainly in the intensity of the workout. Expressed similar Lasse Johannesen, the coach of the Finns. Prior to the Games, he explained each of his athletes have completed a minimum of 400 training jumps.
The retrospective judgments about the jumping competition were cleaved from: Almost all observers praised the competition in terms of sport, but criticized the Italian audience that stood out as little expert and " strangely unaffected " especially when compared to the 180,000 spectators at Holmenkollen 1952. Heinz Maegerlein wrote in his report for the standard work of the National Olympic Committee for Germany, whether it was " inconceivable " that so few visitors came to " the grandiose spectacle [ ... ] de [n ] largest [n ] and beautiful [ n] " to see jumping sports history. In addition Magerlein criticized the rush of competition: The audience would have had no time to reflect on the achievements, so nothing is nachgeklungen.