After the first two competitions of the 64th 4-Hills-Tournament in Oberstdorf and Garmisch-Partenkirchen it's already clear, that Sven Hannawald will remain the only jumper, who could win all four competitions in one season.

14 years after this success, the German obviously doesn't mind that he will hold this record for at least one more year. "Every year I'm thinking: This time someone will be able to do that as well. So far I was always wrong. If it will take a while longer until somebody repeats it, I don't have anything against it. If somebody is able to achieve it, I will be among the first who congratulate him", the 41-year-old said in an interview with the newspaper "Frankfurter Allgemeine".

4-Hills is the non plus ultra 

"The 4-Hills-Tournament is the non plus ultra. For me it's more important than the Olympics, because every athlete has to prove himself in four competitions and just one good day is not enough to win it. That's why it's so difficult, but also interesting", said Hannawald, who also considers Peter Prevc and Severin Freund the top favorites.

But he doesn't want to give his successors any advice. "The guys don't need a teacher from the outside. If they can overcome their nervousness, then they know that it can go in the right direction for them. There are no secrets: You have to take the 4-Hills-Tournament step by step. Everything else doesn't make any sense, because many things don't happen as planned or as you expect it. This was the case for us back then and it's the same today", Sven Hannawald is quoted on faz.net.

For the former 4-Hills-Tournament winner the additional experience of the jumpers is the reason why it's going better for the German team this time than in the recent years. "They learned. Especially Severin Freund is extremely smart. He now knows what he has to do in order to be successful and to not let the pressure from the media or the fans distract him from his plan."

Prevc' consistency is impressive 

Hannawald not only praises his fellow countryman Freund, but also the probably biggest rival Peter Prevc. "His consistency is impressive. His jumps always seem very harmonic and smooth right from the take-off. He takes a lot of speed from the inrun to the flight and he extremely benefits from that farther down. And when he gets to fly, he does it really well. But I think that Severin Freund and the others took him as a motiviation. They worked on it, also the Austrians and the Norwegians. They all want to keep up with Prevc. For the fans this means that they can expect an exciting 4-Hills-Tournament until the very end."

Source: fis-ski.com