Ahead of the first World Cup season Ladies-Skijumping.com takes a close look at all national teams. Today we continue this series with Germany.
Other than at the Continental Cup, the number of competitors at a World Cup competition is limited to 6 per nation. Germany is influenced by this rule as much as no other nation. Germany has a five-strong national team and other six aspiring jumpers in it’s B-squad. So some internal fights for the starting places are bound to occur.
In the last winter Melanie Faisst was the best German. She made it to the top ten in every competition and finally came fourth in the overall CoC. Although her performance was a little weaker this summer, she clearly has the ability to do this winter as well as in the last year. Also Juliane Seyfarth jumped very well last winter, but in this summer her performance was a little unsteady. If she manages to stabilize her form, she is a candidate for top ten results at many World Cups.
Ulrike Grässler was the best German jumper for years and won 15 Continental Cups so far. But in the last winter and in this summer, she jumped not as strong as before. But who knows? Maybe she returns to old strength this winter.
This year’s German Champion, Anna Häfelehad her ups and downs during the last year – she missed the second round at the Oslo World Championships, but entered the top ten at a handful of Continental Cups. The situation of Jenna Mohr is quite similar: She also performed a little unsteady in the last season. Both should normally be able to make it to the top twenty regularly and can also claim places among the best ten on a good day.
Katharina Althaus was the breaking jumper of this summer. In all Continental Cups she was among the top ten and so took the sixth rank in the overall Summer CoC. It would be a great success for this young athlete, if she manages to jump constantly on this high level also in the winter.
For Carina Vogt, Svenja Würth and Ramona Straub it probably will be a tough fight to start in the World Cup outside of the national group. Normally all three are able to see a competition’s second round. On a good day they even have the potential to finish among the bests. But will this be enough to oust some of the A-team members?
Anna Rupprecht is the youngest member of the German squad. But when she competed in the Continental Cup, she always performed very well. So good results in this winter actually won’t be big surprises. Veronika Zobel so far appeared in the Continental Cup only 8 times. So her main goal for this season just has to be gaining more experience in international competitions.
Regardless who will compete there, with it’s strong young athletes Germany is the odds-on favourite for the team competition at the Junior World Championships.